MEFF: Project Darwin
by Elateyin121
Summary: So one night I get sucked out of my average, normal life and dropped into a world full of OCs and insanity. I don't know why I was brought here or who's pulling my puppet strings, but my goal? Get out of here alive and find Shepard! ...Heh, and maybe go home... *S.I.* Main characters later in story!
1. Ch1: It Starts

**Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, all rights belong to BioWare!**

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 1

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey thanks for checking out my story! This is my first fan fic, and I am adding this note in a little later than I probably should have, and I am mainly doing because I forgot to put up any SPOILER WARNINGS – there are a lot of spoilers for all 3 Mass Effect games in this fic, a lot (most) of it in this first chapter! This is a Self-Insert story, I love SI's and wanted to add in one of my own :) I hope you enjoy and would appreciate any and all reviews!**

*_**IT STARTS**_*

My face was probably pretty amusing to watch as I played Mass Effect 2's suicide mission for the first time, hoping I was making all the right choices to keep my crew and squad alive. And my big sister Melody was keeping an eye on my progress as she played a game on her XBOX 360 – she had already played through, multiple times, and wanted to see how good I was gonna do.

So far so good – Legion survived the ducts and Miranda had kept my people alive as the first squad leader. Nearly lost my mind when that poor colonist got melted and then could only watch and hope I'd played it right to get my crew out in time. Playing as Joker had been fun, but I DID NOT enjoy seeing Kelly get dragged screaming into the elevator by a Collector. Picked Jacob for the crew's escort, they all made it back in one piece; Samara's a biotic beast, so I chose her as the Barrier escort; as much as I wanted Garrus always on my team, I had to choose him for the second squad leader as he's the best; and then I took Garrus and Tali with me for the last part of the mission, since they were with me from the start and are my faves.

So we went in, I decided to blow the base, we destroyed the stupid creepy human Reaper, and then when we all started falling I freaked out and nearly jumped out of my seat as Garrus slid down the platform and Shepard barely managed to catch him. The whole cut scene had me on edge and I cheered as Joker got to shoot some of the bad guys as the three of us jumped to safety.

HUZZAH! Everyone survived! And then I finally got to tell TIM to piss off! AWESOME!

Uber excited and bouncing in my seat, I quickly saved (after feeding my fish, I love my fish) and I spun to Melody, who had just joked about not having the option to further a romance – I had Garrus, she had Thane, so no conflict there – and I just rolled my eyes with a laugh. I shut the console off as I stood.

"Dang that feels good! How many days until ME3?"

She laughed at me, "14."

Only two weeks! "So close and yet so far!" I sighed.

"Hey, I've been counting down since December. You can chill."

**AND FOURTEEN DAYS LATER…**

Melody and I were beyond excited as we hung around in GameStop for the midnight release of ME3 – she had pre-ordered the Collector's Edition (I still think it's ironic that they called it the _Collector_'s Edition, heh) and had taken a vacation from work so she could play non-stop.

Midnight came – the game was ours!

She, of course, had first dibs and everybody else was going to wait 'til she was done before we played, and I had made her promise beforehand to not reveal _anything_ to me. I didn't want anything I did to be influenced by knowing what _could_ happen.

That changed when Thane died – she had to tell somebody, and I was afraid it was going to happen so wasn't shocked. I let her tell me a few things after that, though nothing major.

She finished the game on Friday; and given her reaction I said yes very quickly when she asked if she could tell me the endings because she knew I might not want to play after.

And she was right.

I had about the same reaction as her: _What the heck? That makes NO sense! WHY?_

Absolutely. Ridiculous.

The ME forums, fanfics, and fan-arts quickly filled with fix-its and parodies, though I didn't look at many and only some I looked at made sense. I favored ones with a totally different ending or a sensible 'fourth choice', something to fill in the gaping plot holes, maybe the Indoctrination Theory that Melody told me about.

And yes, I love fanfics, especially the funny ones and self-inserts, I read them all the time. Really well written ones can make me cry.

That aside, it had been a few weeks and I decided to finally get started on my own Shepard, still not sure what choice to make at the end.

Didn't get far before it was six-thrity and time for the family to eat dinner and Melody headed to bed (she has to get up at an ungodly hour to go to work - yuck). At eight my younger brother and youngest sister went to bed (they're still in highschool so have a bedtime, hahaha), and I watched t.v. with my mom and other younger sister Sam while Dad did some work in his downstairs office, and I messed around on my computer, looking up Mass Effect pictures and stuff.

I kept myself up as late as I could, eventually being the last one still awake, trying to make sure I would be totally zonked when I fell asleep. I'd been having the same nightmare for two weeks, a really horrid one, every single night…except I couldn't actually remember the dream itself, only the feelings of fear and anxiety left over after and it absolutely terrified me. So I dreaded going to sleep, but dragged myself downstairs a little after midnight anyway.

Only a couple hours after going to bed I woke with a gasp, burying my face in my pillow to suppress my scream; didn't wanna wake up Melody or Sam. I sat up and pushed my covers away – the nightmare had already been blanked from my memory. All I could bring up was the fear, devastation… I shuddered and let out a deep, slow breath and looked at the clock.

2:15 a.m.

Grinding the heels of my hands against my eyes I decided I'd better leave the room. I still had goosebumps and the back of my neck prickled like someone was watching me. I didn't like it and knew I wouldn't be going back to sleep for a while. So I swung myself out of bed and into my slippers and robe, tiptoeing out the door. As I walked towards the stairs I kept rubbing the back of my neck; the prickling wouldn't go away and it was making my nerves buzz uncomfortably.

I paused as I heard a familiar chiming noise in front of me; then the humming chirp of a machine made me look back. Frowning, I shook my head to clear it –obviously my sleep deprivation was making me hear things; it sounded like someone was playing Mass Effect, but I knew everyone was in bed, and the noises were coming from different directions…

A clicking swoosh like an airlock opening came from my left making me spin around –

-but a second later I jumped and hunkered down, looking at the ceiling as the loud, deep thrum the Reapers make when attacking blasts a few times above my head. It's a cool noise, but not something I want to hear when already PARANOID!

Trying to stop myself shaking, I trudged up the stairs; I bet Dad got up to play, that's all it was, he's a lunatic gamer, too, probably wanted to get going with ME3…

The Reaper blast sounds again and I felt a heavy wave of vertigo, causing me to slip on the top stair and I barely managed to catch myself. Breathing shakily, my neck still prickling, I pushed myself into the dark hallway and reached to flip on the light, closing my eyes so I wouldn't be blinded.

The light flashed on and I opened my eyes… but I wasn't looking at my hallway: spread out before me was a vast expanse of empty space, like _outer space_, with stars and a freekin' solar system! Oh God, I must either still be asleep or seriously hallucinating, and I tried to flip the light back off, thinking that would help.

But the switch wasn't there anymore, nothing was there, I couldn't move – the blast rushes through me and this time I almost hear words in it just before everything went black...

And not a minute later, as far as I could tell, I was standing on rough ground, the red and orange light of a sunset behind me. My ears were ringing but I could hear voices and city noise in the distance. I turned around, staring wide-eyed at the sprawling city. I was on the outskirts or something, smaller and less-important looking buildings about half a mile away.

How the heck had I gotten here? And where was 'here'? I was still in my pajamas, and it was cold and getting windy so I was thankful for my robe. I was still trying to make my stunned brain work out whether to start walking or not when a man's voice called out angrily:

"Hey! What're you doing out here kid, get lost!"

Startled, I looked to my right and saw him and another person, it was too dark to see properly but I thought it was a woman, walking towards me. He motioned for his companion to wait where she was and he stomped over to me.

I was trying to not freak out, but his glare was scary enough to make me stumble back as he yelled at me again.

"Dammit I am sick of you crazies coming out here to get high, you're ruining the reputation of this colony! "

Say what now?

He looked around and snapped his glare back on me, "Tell me who you're meeting and I'll let you off today kid, but if I catch you out here again-"

I decided it was time to speak up. "Hey hey, wait a minute, I'm not – I'm not a crazy, or a druggie or whatever, please-"

"Then what the hell are you doing this far out?" he demanded.

"I –I don't know…"

The man opened his mouth the berate me some more but was interrupted by a soft female voice as his companion joined us.

"Now Raj, that's enough, the poor thing is terrified, and look at what she is wearing; I don't think she is out here by choice." The woman took the man's arm as he looked me over, but I was too busy gawping at her to pay much attention to him.

It as an asari – holy crap I was looking at an asari! Wow she was pretty but …What the heck? How? I clamped my mouth shut and swiveled my face back to the human.

Raj gave a frustrated sigh, but his expression was nicer at least, "What's your name kid?"

"Megan." I didn't appreciate the 'kid', since Raj didn't look too much older than my 22 years (soon to be 23 – great I was zapped away right before my birthday), but annoyingly I look younger than I am so I wasn't gonna say anything and cause a problem.

"It is nice to meet you Megan. My name is Mayla, and my friend here is Raj," the asari said with a sweet smile.

Yay for nice aliens, even if I don't know why I'm talking to an alien in the first place.

"You said you don't know why you are out here?" Now she sounded concerned.

I bobbed my head in a quick nod, "Yeah, I - honestly the last thing I remember is being home in bed. I've never come out here before either." Mostly honestly, anyway.

Raj frowned, "It's possible you were drugged and brought out here, or just drugged and you stumbled out here yourself. Where were you before you went home? At any parties, hanging with a friend?"

I figured it was a good idea to roll with it and not have to come up with something myself, "Uh, well, yeah, I mean I don't do drugs or really drink either, but… my friend had this drink she wanted me to try and I did, but it tasted odd so I didn't get one myself…"

Raj nodded, "It was probably spiked then; want to tell me where this was and have me write up-"

"Now Raj, you're off duty, let someone else deal with it," Mayla said with a slight pout, "This is your first night off in a while, I want us to enjoy it."

So Raj was a cop or something; huzzah for the save and I felt myself get slightly red as I realized what these two must be out here for.

"Yeah don't worry, I'll… I'll go report it and check on my friend, make sure she is okay."

Raj stared at me for a minute and nodded, "Alright, but hurry before it gets fully dark, you don't want to get nabbed by anybody. This side of Elysium isn't the safest, even after the Blitz."

Elysium? Cool, at least I know what colony I'm on, and that the Skyllian Blitz has already happened. I wonder what year it is here; if Shepard was a War Hero maybe they had that memorial up already…

I was about to turn and head toward the city, but I had a thought, "If it's so dangerous, are you two gonna be okay?"

Raj chuckled and Mayla smiled, "Yes, we will be fine. We are headed farther down, but wanted to take a walk first. Raj is a tough fighter, and I am a decent Biotic. We appreciate your concern, friend."

I nodded, "So, uh, which is the best way to head back?"

"Straight that way you should be good. But keep an eye out just the same, and holler if you get into any trouble," Raj pointed a direction and then he handed me a small round radio.

"Okay I gotta admit, I'm not real tech savvy – do I just push this button to talk?"

That got a real laugh out of him, "Yes, push that one to talk, but flip this switch to turn it on. Volume adjust is here."

"Right. Thanks. Okay, I'll go now. Guess I'll…see you guys later." I slipped the comm into my robe pocket.

Raj nodded and Mayla waved as they walked off and I started to walk slowly towards the colony, my mind whirling.

Somehow I was in the Mass Effect universe. Not sure whether it's really happening or not, could just be a dream… better check. So I pinched my arm. And again and again. Ow, yeah I felt that. But that doesn't mean it's not a dream, maybe I'm just… imagining the pain.

So I slapped myself in the face, hard as I could and –

OWWW! Crap yes I felt that, OW, now my face and hand were stinging and I imagine my cheek was turning extremely red.

Sooo… not a dream? Again I had to wonder how that was even possible. Nothing epic had happened to bring me here, just a series of minor hallucinations from sleep deprivation and _BAM_! here I am.

Dagnabbit, what am I supposed to do now?


	2. Ch2: Panic Sets In

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, all rights belong to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 2

*_**PANIC SETS IN**_*

**A/N: So decided to put chapter 2 up sooner, but unfortunately regular updates won't be every day. Work keeps me fairly busy so will update as soon as the chapter is written :) And fixed the title a bit, this works better than before (this is my first fic, I am new to this). Thanks to all who have checked it out so far! I hope you enjoy it! And please review!**

I walked along for a few minutes and it got much darker very quickly. Luckily I reached the edge of the lighted area and stepped around a small trailer-type building –

-aaaand not so luckily ran into another alien, but not a friendly alien like Mayla; the pissed off batarian glared down at me with both sets of eyes and snarled.

"What do we have here? A little human on the loose? And in her night clothes no less."

Oh no oh no oh no… "Uh, um, yeah I'm just gonna go-"

The batarian grabbed my arm as I tried to turn and run, "You think you can come into my territory uninvited and just leave? I don't think so human. I think you owe me something – give me your credit chit and I'll let you go."

"I don't have it with me, please I don't have anything!" I stammered out, trying to jerk my arm out of his grip.

"Let the girl go, Gendan. Do you want me to report you?" a pleasant woman's voice called out.

The batarian jerked me around and pushed his other arm against my throat to keep me pinned against his chest. "This is none of your business Deloc. Leave."

"Oh I don't think so; you've gotten yourself plenty of enemies Gendan, do you really think they won't jump at the chance to finally get rid of you?"

He snarled one last time and shoved me forward; I nearly landed in the dirt but the human woman caught my shoulders and pulled me up. I looked over my shoulder as the batarian stomped away and I could feel myself shaking; it was difficult to stay on my feet. The woman put a hand on each side of my face and studied me for a moment.

"Are you alright?"

I nodded, "Uh, yeah thanks. Thank you for that."

She nodded curtly, "Not a problem. Katherine Deloc at your service. May I ask what you're doing out here? In your pajamas, no less?"

I gave her the same story I told Raj and Mayla. She suddenly looked very interested, and my sixth sense got suspicious, but I kept my expression neutral.

"So you're family and friends don't know you came out here?"

"Uh… probably not? But maybe? I can't remember."

She looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled; something about that smile, and her eyes, seemed a little off to me. What did she care if anybody knew where I was? Maybe I should mention Raj and Mayla just to be safe…

"But I ran into a cop named Raj and his girlfriend Mayla a few minutes ago, they wanted to make sure I got back in alright…"

"Well, no matter." Okay, she sounded a bit too cheery… "Come, I will walk with you to make sure you don't get in anymore trouble."

I didn't really want to her to, but couldn't think of a good reason to say no. Deloc had me turn to walk with her and she smiled at me again before she reached over and put her arm around my shoulders.

My paranoia alarm went nuts and I tried to duck away but felt a sharp sting on the side of my neck. My vision swam, more than one pair of arms caught me as I started to fall and I passed out.

* * *

_My nightmare flashed sporadically through my mind, louder and sharper than usual…_

_The larger than life monstrosity stared me down, eyes glowing a fiery reddish orange._

_I tried to step back but couldn't move; the monster spoke in an angry, superior voice that thundered through me:_

"_**YOU WILL DO MY BIDDING HUMAN. YOU WILL ELIMINATE THE THREAT. THE CYCLE MUST CONTINUE. I WILL NOT ALLOW THE OTHERS TO INTERFERE!"**_

_Fire; Death; Destruction; Cold; Laughter; PAIN—_

I woke lying on my stomach, cold metal pressed against my cheek. Choking in panic, I rolled onto my back; nightmare – it was all just another nightmare, just needed to calm down.

I blinked in the too-bright light, staring blearily at a metal ceiling. Okay… either I was still having a nightmare or that Deloc woman had really drugged me and taken me somewhere else that I didn't recognize. Wonderful.

Shaky and lightheaded, I tried pushing myself up, but my hands caught as I tried pulling them to either side. Frowning, I held them up to look at them. I was in a pair of thick metal handcuffs, a short, heavy chain connecting the cuffs, and a much longer chain linking the cuffs to the wall a couple feet to my right. The wall was the same light paneled metal as the floor and ceiling, with deep angular grooves branching across it.

I looked to the front again – another wall, but just a few small panels, maybe ten-foot wide total. I noticed my feet were shackled as well, but with a chain about a foot long and not secured to the wall. And I wasn't wearing my PJs anymore, or my fuzzy slippers.

I was barefoot and in pants of some heavy, shiny bluish-white material, maybe leather-ish, and I could feel a belt tight across my stomach though the pant legs were rather baggy, like cargo pants. I pushed myself up with my forearms and examined my shirt – vest-like sleeveless, same material as the pants, a thick zipper with a wide collar that came up to my jaw. Sleeveless was not good, considering how cold it was, like really cold. I had goosebumps.

As I moved to kneel next to the wall I heard a clinking noise behind me and I twisted to look. I was not alone and this room was much bigger than I had thought.

There were eight other people, all hooked to the wall like me, separated at even intervals. They were all in the same outfit as me, which was a relief in a weird way, but I still felt self-conscious in the clothes– I was out of shape and needed to lose a few pounds.

The person next to me was a guy who had apparently just woken up and him moving was what got my attention. As I watched him rearrange his legs into a sitting position I found myself coming out of my state of calm; my breath was hitching and I could feel the panic beginning to settle in after being forced to act normal before

The guy turned to look at me; he had shaggy light brown hair, a long face, and his overall appearance was sickly and haggard, but his eyes were a pale green, bright and alert, intelligent. He looked me over warily, slightly concerned.

"Easy girl, calm down, I know this must be freaking you out, but if you hyperventilate you'll pass out. Deep breaths, come on, the drugs in your system will wear off soon."

I took a really deep breath and held it before letting it out slowly. The guy nodded sympathetically and encouragingly.

"You're probably still in shock or something. Been awake long?"

I shook my head.

"Didn't think so. You remember anything from getting taken?"

A chill ran down my spine and I shook my head again, "Not really, just… I was talking to someone, I don't know, and then I passed out or something. Where are we?"

I looked around again and back to him. He sighed, "I can't say for sure – a lab facility of some kind, I don't know who runs it. This is, we are, Cell 21. How many more there are I can't guess, but I know each cell is supposed to have nine members to be complete. Now that you've survived the first round of examination and implants, you make nine in our cell. Seven and Eight were brought in a few days ago and-"

"Wait – examination? Implants? What is this place? Why are we in this cell?"

"The initial exam after they drug and transport you is to determine whether you are compatible with their cybernetic and neural implants."

"Implants? What are the implants for?"

"To enhance some abilities you currently have or that they 'enhance' you with. They are trying to create stronger, more powerful humans – super soldiers, genius caliber tech and engineering, superior Biotic abilities."

My brain fizzled out a little and my insides seemed to disappear. Oh, not good, really not good.

"Create and enhance? How…?" I choked out.

"Different treatments and such for each class**. **I believe you're here for the Biotic class; they put three of each ability in a cell and Biotics was the only incomplete category. Have you been previously exposed to E-Zo?"

Feeling numb, I shook my head.

He tensed, "Damn. They still expose you themselves, but it is easier to handle if you already have some adaptation to the element. "

Trying to organize my thoughts in an effort to calm myself, I asked**, **"So what are the first implants they put in you? And what do you mean 'if the person survives'?"

"The mind and body can reject these implants, react in such a way that it either kills the subject or does permanent damage. But those people are taken care of immediatley – if you pass the exam but can't handle the implants, they just dispose of you."

"What? What if you don't pass even the examination?"

He shrugged, "Then they just dump you somewhere to be found later."

I could feel myself shaking now, it was getting harder to breathe. He continued…

"The first implants are for monitoring and stabilization of the genetic manipulation process, which starts with a drug that one implant synthesizes and releases periodically. That one they place just behind your right ear, and the one they use for monitoring the release is at the back of your neck, and it sends read-outs to the computers. Also, if you're dead or dying, it lets them know."

Rubbing those two spots, I swallowed and asked shakily, "How do you know so much? How long have you been here?"

He gave a tight, bitter smile, "I've been here for a few months already, the first member of this cell, and I've seen a couple taken away because they couldn't handle what was going on. And I know because I listen, and because they've done a very good job on me. I was a tech expert before they brought me in here and their enhancements have only made me better; I can hack the smaller systems easily enough, though the real info is kept separate as a defense against us, and the inhibitor keeps me out of the more restricted data files in all systems."

"Inhibitor?"

"Yeah, you'll get one of those after they boost you enough to need one – they don't want us going nuts on'em."

"Yep, they're paranoid we'll rise against them and unleash our genetically modified awesomeness upon them," came another voice; one of the guys, a younger one, next to my neighbor.

"The inhibitors prevent that?"

"Yep – paralyze you with pain and zap your brain to knock you out if they have to. Nasty, but we like to push anyway, keep'em on their toes."

I nodded as I saw a few of the others waking up. There were six guys and three girls, all youngish and with the same sickly look. Two guys looked a little healthier than the rest, so I guessed they were Seven and Eight.

"So… who's all in what category?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

The second guy spoke up first, "Well your buddy Tate, Wes, and Lacy are the Techs. Me, Donna, and Marvin are the Soldiers, and you, Brandon, and Noah are the Biotics."

He pointed out each person as he named them; the ones who were awake waved or nodded, none looking particularly happy. I looked back to him.

"So who's 'Me'?"

He looked confused for a moment and Tate chuckled. Then the guy got what I meant and grinned.

"Oh, 'Me', right – 'Me' is Max. And you?"

"Megan."

"Nice ta meetcha Meg."

Brandon rolled his eyes at Max's upbeat attitude and Tate shook his head. Marvin scowled at him.

"You're an idiot Max, you still don't get how dire this all is – do you know what's gonna happen now that _she's_ here?"

He glared at me nastily and I shrank back, glad he was so far away. My cuffs dug in sharply, hurting me, and my ankle twisted causing one cuff to cut my foot and shooting pain up my leg to my hip. Blast it, that hurt! I straightened myself and shrank against the wall. Brandon, Max, and Donna yelled at Marvin to shut up.

My panic was rising again and I wasn't sure if I would be able to repress it this time…

Tate glared at Marvin and then turned to me with a reassuring smile, but he still looked strained, "Sorry about him, he's a jerk; look, there are some other things I need to tell you-"

"TATE!" a female voice called. Donna.

All the others were waking up, rubbing their heads. They looked around, saw the scared and tense faces of the others, and saw me. Then they got scared too, scooting to huddle against the wall, as did Marvin and Donna.

Brandon turned a pale face to Tate, "They woke them all up at once, Tate they're coming again…"

Tate swore, "I know, get up against the wall!"

Brandon nodded and he and Max pushed themselves back. Tate turned to face me – I don't know what he saw on my panicked face, but it scared him, I could tell. But he steeled his expression and told me to lean against the wall and brace myself as he did the same. As I crawled over I asked him why.

He grimaced, "I'm sorry I should've warned you already; to control us when they are coming for all of us, they-"

He didn't get to finish.

All nine of us were suddenly zapped with a current through both sets of cuffs and also from the wall, I could feel it pulling me flat against it, immobilizing me. It felt like very nerve in my body had simultaneously been shocked, set on fire, and dunked in acid, and I felt like thousands of needles were stabbing into my skin. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't scream or even pass out.

A few seconds seemed an eternity as a section of the back wall slid open on the other end and a tall muscular man wearing an odd black and white bodysuit marched in, large metal rings- collars?- hanging from his belt. I had to sit there and watch as he hooked a collar around each person's neck, as the person slumped into unconsciousness and was dragged out by a second man.

Tate's eyes darted to mine as Max was collared and taken away. He managed to jerk his head in a weird way, probably trying to reassure me in some way but it didn't work, before the man grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, snapping the collar on. Three small, round lights blinked as the seam sealed shut and Tate went limp. Sound had become nothing more than a dull roar in my head and my sight was darkening, blurry.

Tate was dragged away; I was watching him so didn't see the man in front of me until he grabbed a fistful of my hair and twisted painfully, forcing me to face him. He said something with a sneer; I couldn't hear him. And I dimly comprehended that he had really bad breath.

The cold metal clamped around my throat, flashing hot for an instant. The pain abruptly vanished and I lost consciousness.

* * *

The annoying beeping of multiple machines woke me up. My eyes snapped open and shut again; the lights were still too bright, too harsh. I tried to move, but was restrained, lying on my back, my cuffs securing me to some sort of metal table. I heard heels clicking sharply and I swiveled my head to see a small woman with big eyes and even bigger glasses walking towards me, tapping away at a datapad.

"Subject 11C21B3 - Cell 21, Biotic division."

She stopped next to my shoulder and looked down at me with a nasty, twisted smile. I glared at her and noticed a yellow and black symbol on the shoulder of her labcoat.

"Welcome to Project Darwin."

Cerberus. _Shit._


	3. Ch3: Labrats

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Mass Effect, all the awesomeness belongs to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 3

**A/N: I know this is kind of getting a slow start but it gets more interesting, I promise! Still working on chapter 4, will get posted as soon as I can! And thank you to those who have reviewed/alerted/and faved! You make me happy!**

*_**LABRATS**_*

I glared at the woman as she fiddled with some of the computers – my Fight or Flight response was kicking in, and since Flight wasn't really an option right now, I went with Fight. I'd had my panic breakdown already anyway, sort of, so continuing to freak out would just be pathetic.

My glare intensified and I could feel my lip curl slightly as she walked all prissy-like in her black pumps back to my shoulder. She just continued to smile with that same arrogant, taunting, triumphant, nasty look. If my hands weren't clamped down on either side by my cuffs, I'd have slugged her by now. I wasn't usually this violent, but given the circumstances…

"Vitals are holding steady and I don't see any signs of resistance to the implants so far. Now let me see…"

She reached one hand toward my head.

I immediately jerked away and I spat out a sharp hiss, like a pissed off cat, teeth bared and everything. I did that when I was angry, scared, defensive and sometimes in play; it was a running joke in my family that we were part feline and I played with it.

Anyway, it surprised Dr. Glasses and she snatched her hand back, frowning at me. I continued to glare, teeth clenched. She recovered quickly though and clamped one hand on my forehead while the other pushed under my neck. I tried to pull away but her grip was like a vice – she didn't look like she'd be that strong. Then she moved her hand behind my ear, just below the hairline. She nodded in satisfaction and released me, retrieving her datapad.

"No sign of irritation or movement of the implants. Good. Everything checks out. Let us begin-"

"Let us _not_!" I shot back and again pulled against my restraints – the wrist and ankle cuffs had me secured on the metal slab, as well as at my waist and neck.

She ignored me and hit a button on the end of the slab. Something clicked and she pushed the table forward – it hovered forward with a hum and she guided it into another room with a really big white machine that she had my slab connect with and slide into. There were a lot of lighted panels and blinking lights; it reminded me of an MRI machine, so I figured she was taking a look at my brain or something.

The lights flashed and I squeezed my eyes closed.

This continued for a few minutes and then she pulled me out. I kept my eyes closed – I now had a pounding headache. I could hear her tapping on something before she guided me back to the first room. I was grinding my teeth as I watched her pull some weird metal contraption from a shelf and brought it over.

It was an odd curved metal band with small suction-cup things on the inside and thin tiny rods about a half an inch long with bubbled tops. She held it over my face and I snapped my teeth at her and turned my head when she tried to put it on my forehead.

Her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed; I was irritating her. Good.

She gave me a cold look, "Hold still."

"Piss off."

She got this annoyingly superior look on her stupid face as she said, "Unless you want to suffer severe brain damage I suggest you hold still while I attach this. One of my last subjects continued to struggle and the result was not enjoyable for him."

'Not enjoyable for him' huh? Did that mean _she _enjoyed it? Freak. Wouldn't surprise me, the creeper vibes I get from her are ridiculous.

I gave her a real dirty look, but closed my eyes and kept my head still. I flinched when the device suctioned to my skin and I heard this weird noise, a low hum, _inside_ my head. Wanting to freak out again but unwilling to give this bitch the satisfaction of seeing me lose it, I balled my hands into fists and dug my nails into my palms. I heard her heels clack as she strolled back over to the giant computer system and tapped some more buttons.

The hum became kind of two-toned, with a low and higher pitch together. I swear my brain was vibrating.

I heard a sharp click like a switch being flipped. The hum became a little higher pitched and developed a bit of a whine. She flipped another switch; the whine became intensified as the pitch rose. My headache got worse – it felt like hammers were pounding inside my skull.

Third switch – everything intensified again, the pressure in my head was making me nauseous and my ears started ringing.

I wanted to scream, yell, yank that stupid contraption off my head, _something_! But Glasses was watching me, I could feel her eyes on me. She was waiting for something, some reaction from me or a read-out from the computer. Well if it was me she was waiting on, she was going to be disappointed – I'm stubborn when pissed and have a high threshold for pain.

Then she flipped the fourth switch – I couldn't hear it thanks to the inner noise and pressure, but I had no other explanation for the sudden explosion of pain in my head. The hum was now a high screeching wail and along with that was a heavy buzzing, like a hive of bees was zipping around in my head and stinging my brain; the ringing in my ears seemed to double in volume, I couldn't hear anything, every muscle in my body locked, my bones ached, I couldn't breathe, and I fought against my restraints, thrashing, trying to get away from the pain…

Suddenly, mercifully, it stopped, all of it except for a light ringing lingering in my ears.

I went limp, gasping for breath and blinking my eyes slowly – the ceiling was blurry and spinning, but my vision cleared after a few blinks. I had broken into a cold sweat sometime during the process. I was trying to get my breathing under control when Dr. Glasses' cold voice broke my concentration.

"Impressive – none of my other subjects were able to pass level three in their first session. How does your head feel?"

I gulped in a deep breath and managed to get out a quick "Go to hell" before the air rushed out of me – my chest was getting very tight and I couldn't breathe good, like I had a stitch all along my ribs, and being strapped down made things worse.

Dr. Glasses didn't say anything to that, but she clacked over and ripped the device off my head.

_OWWW!_

I looked at the band, honestly wondering if any skin had been ripped off my face. Thankfully no, but my forehead was now stinging like crazy. Glasses gave me a cold stare, "Do any of the effects remain?"

"My ears are still ringing and I can't friggin' breathe!" I snapped.

"Is there any residual pain?" She turned her back to me and went back to her consoles.

I rolled my eyes and swung my head down to watch her and started to say "No" but suddenly my head throbbed horribly and I cut off my answer with a grunt and a grimace, laying my head back.

I could hear the smirk in her voice, "You were saying?"

I glared at the ceiling, "_Now_ I have a massive headache. What the hell did you do to me?"

"I merely took images of your brain activity and scanned and tested your neurological capacity level."

Riiiight, that was all. She was a bad guy, she wasn't going to give me a real answer. Cuz no way did that head device just test me, it did something; I could feel it, something lingering in my brain. Ugh.

I was pulled from my thoughts by an intercom buzz followed by a man's voice, "You're late in communication. Is the subject ready yet?"

Dr. Glasses leaned to press a red panel on the end console, "Nearly ready, submitting results; subject tolerance higher than others previous."

"I'm right here y'know! Stop talking like I'm not here!" I hollered at her.

"Good," the mystery man answered, "I'm on my way." And the com beeped off.

"Who was that? Why is he coming? What am I supposed to be ready for?" I demanded.

She ignored me. Pissaint. I'm normally a very nice person, kinda quiet, but just for her I decided I was going to be super annoying.

"Hellooooo? I'm talking to yooouuu; I know you can hear me, answer meeeee. I'm not gonna shut uuuup. Y'know I'm cold, why is it so cold in here? Hey heeeey, who's the guy? Who're you? Who am I? What're you doing to us? Geez, can't you answer even one question, lady? I'll shut up if you answer! C'mon, you know you want me to shut up-"

The door swooshed open rather loudly and I was distracted from my whiny tirade; a man came in pushing a two-shelf hover cart. He also wore a labcoat, but in addition he was wearing a doctor's facemask and scrubs. The cart was covered in an assortment of sharp and pointy tools, vials, bottles -creepy hospital stuff.

I shut up.

Glasses and the new doctor started hooking some things up to the machines around my table. I closed my eyes when The Doctor started arranging his tools. I've never been a fan of hospitals and have never had any kind of surgery before, so this set up was scaring me more than anything Glasses had done so far.

I heard them right next to me and I had to look – and immediately wished I hadn't. The Doctor was prepping a syringe and Glasses reached to grab my arm. I started thrashing and jerking, trying to keep them from getting a secure hold on my arm, but The Doctor clearly didn't care about finesse; after a minute of being unable to calm me he just stuck the needle in my arm and managed to hit the softer area inside my elbow.

It hurt like heck and got worse when he emptied the contents into me, like acid in my blood, and it was like suddenly all of my senses became extra alert. I ground my teeth and clenched my fists, but couldn't fully suppress the hiss of anger and pain – I'd been through enough already, I was tired.

Glasses smirked at me though The Doctor kept his face impassive the whole time, which was creepy in itself. I gave Glasses a supremely nasty look and swore as The Doctor injected me with something else and I could feel myself going numb all over.

"What're you – why…" my head spun and so did the room. I rolled my head to stare at the ceiling. Then I blacked out.

* * *

I was seriously getting tired of being knocked out and waking up somewhere else. Eventually it was going to permanently mess up my head. I groaned as my head slowly cleared and I knew I was lying on the floor again.

Keeping my eyes closed I pushed myself up and back until I hit the wall – then I just sagged against it, taking slow, deep breaths. I could hear the others moaning as they woke as well.

Pulling my hands up I sighed (the cuffs were linked again) I shielded my eyes as I blinked and looked down the cell. Most everybody had been brought back by now and some were conscious, though only – Noah? Yeah that was his name – seemed real alert, his eyes wide and his breathing heavy.

Tate was missing, and the blonde girl Lacy. Max had one eye barely open but saw me looking and gave a weak grin.

"You survived; good. How's your head?"

Throbbing, aching, ugh… "Fine, I guess. You?"

"Same…" he trailed off, closing his eyes and sighing.

I kept quiet for a moment but had to ask, "Where's Tate?"

"Dead if he's lucky," Marvin spat out.

That got everyone riled up and we all snarled and yelled at him, but cut out when a red light on the ceiling above Lacy's station flashed green – then a small portion of the wall slid up and Bad Breath dragged her in, reconnecting her cuffs to the wall; he turned and marched out, the wall sliding back down and the light went back to red.

I frowned - why did they zap us all earlier if they could do it easier one by one? The sickos probably enjoyed it. Bastards.

Max and Noah both turned to the whimpering woman and tried to reach her as best they could, mainly by scooting over and stretching their chains to the limit, unable to use their hands but nudging her with their feet, and whispering words of concern and encouragement.

She looked bad, much worse than before; paler, sweaty, and red flecks on her chin and neck, some dots on her shirt. Blood – she'd had a nosebleed and maybe… yes, her ears had bled too. Oh God, what had happened to her?

My heart was in my throat and pounding as I watched, unable to do anything to help. And as worried as I was about her, I was even more worried for Tate; where was he? Why was it taking so long for them to bring him back?

Lacy finally was able to push herself up; she coughed and scooted closer to Noah, enough chain leeway for both of them to get close enough for her to lay her head on his shoulder. Max pulled back and let out a sigh of relief. So Lacy was okay for now. Good.

But I could see the anxiety in Max and we each sat straight as Tate's light turned green and he was literally tossed in, re-secured, and the wall closed. He was actually mostly conscious and when we asked if he was okay he nodded sharply while surveying the room to make sure everybody else was there and afterwards he slumped against the wall and let out a deep, ragged breath.

"Why were you the last to be brought back? Were they doing the same thing to all of us or did you guys all get different … stuff?" I asked quietly.

Tate swiveled his head to look at me, "There's two reasons why someone comes back later than the others: 1) they can handle more of the tests than the others, or 2) they have a problem during the testing so are held back for treatment and so the doctors can try and find out why they had a problem. Unless the problem ends up killing them or something, then they just don't come back."

I shuddered and he continued, "For your other question – we all pretty much are getting the same thing, some of us who have been here longer get more… 'specialized' treatment, but the tests and such vary person to person, depending what level you're at. Eventually we'll all have started the 'special' stuff for our respective classes and -"

"And then everything will just get worse!" Marvin moaned, loudly.

Max twisted around to snarl at him, but Tate stopped him. The tech specialist was staring at Marvin, but I couldn't see his expression. Marvin looked up from having his face buried against his knees and flinched as Tate spoke in a dangerous growl.

"What makes you say that? How could _you_ know what's coming? You've said something like that before – explain it to me."

Marvin hunkered down even more, his strong featured face crumpling like a child's, "I – I know, I heard something… a few weeks ago, the first time they took me out. They shot me with the drug and thought I was already unconscious, but I wasn't. Some other guy came over the com saying another cell had all nine members and asked for confirmation to proceed to … 'Phase Two'. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if _she_ hadn't then asked if the arena had been cleaned since the last rounds…"

There was a strained silence. Then Wes asked, "And what did he say?"

"Well he said 'yes' but that's not the important part -"

"The arena then? But what's that even mean?" Brandon's tone and scowl made it clear he thought Marvin was full of it.

Marvin's pale face flushed and he glowered at Brandon, "I don't know, they didn't exactly elaborate! But arenas are only used for one thing – fighting! And what do you think they would've had to be cleaning up?"

Nobody answered as he looked around, but I think I knew what he was getting at, this guy was clearly a tragic dramatic character…

"Blood! And whatever was left over after the fights! Whatever 'Phase Two' is-"

"Well of course it's _worse_, why would you expect this to get any _better_? They're experimenting on us, it figures they would do something to test whether the stuff they're doing is working or not!" Tate snapped.

Everybody turned to look at him; being on the end I felt rather excluded, ridiculous I know, but it also felt odd cuz they were all kinda staring at me, too. Then Tate crossed his arms over his chest and lay against the wall, facing the other side of the cell and closed his eyes.

"Look, focusing on what might happen next isn't going to help anyone right now, it'll just make you panic which will make this whole process harder than it is already."

"So what're we supposed to do? Just go with it?" Donna demanded.

"For now – yes."

She gawped at him, "But we need to do _something_, people could die from all this crap-"

"Of that I am well aware, and I'm not saying give up, I'm saying _wait_. There is nothing we can do right now. Maybe once we reach this 'Phase Two' we will have more opportunity for organizing an opposition."

"But Tate…" Noah started hesitantly, "…Lacy doesn't have that kind of time. That head device – they're pushing too hard because she's a tech, but she can't take it."

Lacy didn't say anything; she'd either fallen asleep or passed out on Noah's shoulder. Tate got a pained look on his face.

"I know. Hopefully it won't be too much longer and the newer ones will receive their class treatment."

He turned his head to look at me, "Unfortunately, since you have no prior exposure, that means they'll have to give you a full exposure to E-zo. "

Brandon and Noah shuddered and Brandon gave me a sympathetic look, "I didn't have any prior exposure either, so when it gets to that point I'll try and help you through it the best I can."

I swallowed, "How do they expose you?" Though I probably already knew…

He glanced at Noah before answering, "They stick you and any other newbies in a big containment room with a bit of E-zo in a crate – then they blow it up. If you survive the explosion, you have to survive the E-zo."

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I looked at Noah, "So were you already pre-exposed?"

He nodded, "Yeah, a few years back. Didn't have more than a basic implant to control the Biotics, though."

I hesitated, "So why would they expose you again? Couldn't they just start the other stuff or whatever?"

Now everyone was shifting around, looking uncomfortable. I stared at them, "What?"

Brandon took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "These people… they're extra psycho. They want to push human limitations as fast and as hard as they can, and so they went one step farther with the E-zo. They've refined it with some drug they created, making more dangerous and unstable. People who could've normally survived normal E-zo exposure may not survive the extra addition."

Oh that is really, really not good… "That's why some of the people die even after all the examinations and tests?"

"Yes."

"But – what use is the drug? What does it do?"

Tate leaned forward to answer, "It's supposed to heighten your sense, increase Biotic durability and power – but it can kill because your body can quickly react to it like a drug overdose, get too 'high', or because the change in E-zo can still cause the tumors."

"Except these tumors develop and kill you within hours," Noah finished grimly.

I was shaking again, "These people are insane! How is this going to help anybody?"

"They want to determine what the best genetic sequences are, find those with the best genetic potential and manipulate their DNA to see how far they can push that potential. Once they've figured out how to make 'better' humans I imagine they'll produce some 'treatments' like gene therapy."

I snorted, "Yeah and what're they gonna say as to how they know it works? Not like they're gonna confess to mass kidnapping, murder, and illegal experimentation."

Tate shook his head, "That I don't know. Don't really care either – I plan on finding some way out of here and making sure their plans fail."

"I second that!" Max cheered, getting a weary 'huzzah' from the rest of us. Except Marvin, of course, he just continued to mope.

Lacy woke up again and I sat back and listened as the others took care of her. She and Noah were oddly close; I would ask about it later. For now… waiting until the next time they pulled us out and possibly put me in a room to blow me up with an unstable radioactive element. Lovely.

* * *

**A/N: Just felt I should toss this in - I will be meeting up with Shepard eventually, don't worry, it will just take a bit to get to that point. Plot must be laid!**


	4. Ch4: Story Time

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect! All rights belong to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey I finally got it done! That took longer than I thought it would, hopefully the next one won't take so long…thanks to my reviewers! You guys are awesome! Hope you enjoy the story!**

**The italicized are flashbacks.**

* * *

_***Story Time***_

POST-SESSION 5

Y'know, my luck had never been real great. Actually, when I think about it, I just don't seem to have much good luck at all. But I didn't think I had such bad luck that I'd end up _here_ of all places.

Why me? Why did that Deloc lady on Elysium pick me? I'd rather go back and go head to head with that stupid batarian than have her show up!

No, I know why – nobody actually knew where I was, and the story I was using could easily explain my disappearance. I was an easy target. Dammit, I should've asked Raj to walk with me!

I sighed and laid my head against the wall, eyes closed. I had a massive headache that just wouldn't go away thanks to them sticking that head device on me every day (I say 'day', but time is relative here, we have no idea how much time is actually going by) along with all the other crap they were doing. It was obvious why everybody looked so bad when I first saw them, having to deal with all this.

And on top of all that the stuff they made us eat – it didn't even qualify as real food! It was the nastiest, most vile, disgusting … _'ugh'_ I've ever had the displeasure of consuming! And it doesn't even look the least bit edible: it's some kind of 'nutritious' tubes of a gel-paste which was slimy, and energy bars with the consistency of crumbly cardboard.

The first time this stuff popped out of the wall I took one sniff, gagged and refused to put it anywhere near my mouth. Then Max informed me of what they do to ensure that all subjects receive the 'proper Project Darwin nutrition': they did the whole drug-you-and-take-you-away-unconscious bit and pretty much shoved it all down your throat. Though the upside there is you don't have to taste it.

I wanted to ask how he knew, but given his shudder and the zest with which he then ate the nastiness even while wrinkling his nose, I assumed he'd had firsthand experience.

So I ate the stuff. And if I didn't find throwing up to be _beyond_ disgusting, and had gotten to where I am quite good at making myself _not_ throw up, I definitely would've thrown up.

Couldn't use the feedings as a way to tell time either, they were so random. They didn't really let us sleep much either – and I'm the kind of person who really likes to sleep! And whatever some people might say, being drugged into unconsciousness does not count as sleep.

Sigh…I still hadn't gotten any real details about the treatments and such, even though Tate and Wes were able to hack the systems each time they had a session; all they could get was all of it was supposed to make us 'better'. Kinda knew about one drug from what they had previously learned: the drug they injected us with every time before they gave us the sedatives in the lab was supposed to help our bodies deal with the combined effects of everything, help us adapt somehow, all the way down to a genetic level.

They called it the 'Darwin Drug'.

The rest of the treatments we hypothesized were different types of gene therapy and surgical modifications.

They also had us taking multiple pills every feeding –making us all feel like addicts- and I thank God that these people at least had the decency to give us access to plenty of water so we didn't have to take the pills dry. To get water all we had to do was tap a wall panel that slid open, popping out a metal cup, and another tap activated a small pipe that dispensed water like those ice/water compartments on refrigerator doors.

Though thanks to all the nasty food messing with our taste buds, the water tastes funny, too; or maybe it also had 'special' qualities. Probably. Ick.

Anyway! I'd made some productive use of my time here trying to get to know my cellmates. Though any conversation generally became a group discussion no matter how it started given that I was way on one end and one-on-one was impossible.

Except with Tate; he was the only one I could talk with privately and so I tended to turn to him if I had a question or comment I didn't want to broadcast to the others.

Like when I asked about Lacy and Noah…

...

_PRE-SESSION 3_

_I choked once again, finally finishing off the vileness they had the nerve to call food. Max gave me a sympathetic smile – he'd finished first as usual, practically inhaling it. Most of the others were done; Brandon seemed to be having trouble getting some of the paste unstuck from the roof of his mouth and Noah was trying to coax Lacy to keep eating. I watched her slowly chew the bar, coughing at the dryness and having to tap the blue panel for more water, which she gulped down._

_Tate heaved a deep sigh, having been watching them as well, and he stretched his long legs out and set his elbows on them as he propped his chin on his fists. I fidgeted, not sure how to ask my question. Tate swiveled his head a little towards me and raised one brow;_

"_Something on your mind?"_

_I flushed slightly in embarrassment at being so obvious, but I nodded, "Yeah, um… I get everyone being close and all, but Noah and Lacy seem…closer than everybody else, I dunno…"_

_Max had leaned over to try and hear our conversation but Tate shared a look with him and Max nodded and sat back, closing his eyes._

_Tate motioned me closer as he slid over toward me. Intrigued, I shuffled quietly until our shoulders were nearly touching and the cuffs tugged at my wrists. Tate tilted his head down to talk into my ear and I automatically ducked my head, self-conscious about his face being that close to mine – I'm a person used to personal space, not real comfortable getting in close physical proximity with people I don't know well._

"_Noah and Lacy are cousins, taken from the same colony," he murmured, "though Noah was only visiting the colony and he was brought in first."_

_Oh- well that's not what I'd been expecting._

_I frowned, "How did that happen? The odds of them both being taken and then ending up in the same cell seem a bit slim."_

"_Because Lacy didn't 'end up' in this cell; her being taken wasn't random. Noah had been visiting her and her family and when he disappeared she wouldn't accept that he just up and left without saying goodbye. She kept pushing to find him and eventually used her tech skills to hack the agent's omni-tool - yes, she managed to locate the actual agent – but she was caught. They'd been tracking her. We don't know what excuse they came up with to explain Lacy going missing, but she passed all the examinations and implants. As for being placed in this cell, I guess they thought it would be ironic to put her with Noah – she'd wanted to know where he was, and they took her to him."_

_Tate shook his head, "Noah nearly lost his mind when they dragged her in."_

_..._

A loud, horrid fit of hacking coughs brought me out of my thoughts and I jumped forward to see Noah and Max crowding around Lacy, who was curled over her knees and shaking.

Noah was jerking against his restraints, "Lacy! Come on, breathe! Sit up and breathe! Lacy!"

They couldn't reach her and she didn't respond, but took a few rattling breaths and collapsed on her side. Dark blood had splattered her pants and the floor and stained her lips.

She wasn't breathing.

The light above her flashed green and the wall opened again to a group of scientists who unhooked her and lay her on a stretcher while Noah swore and cursed at them.

Bad Breath Man stood by and remained in the cell for a moment after Lacy was taken away. He scanned us all with narrowed eyes and sneered.

"Don't worry, we will be coming for the rest of you soon enough."

Noah lunged at him and was shocked by his cuffs, dropping him heavily to the floor where he continued to growl at the man as he strolled out and the panel closed.

Oh God, what was going on? There was no way to know what they were doing with her, was she being revived or was she really dead? She couldn't be dead, she couldn't have just DIED right there, just out of reach!

And… and if she was dead, then… who were they going to bring in next? Because we still hadn't entered Phase Two, and we had to have a full Cell to do that, and some of these guys had been here for so long already…. How much more could they handle?

Especially Tate and Max – they had already seen two cellmates die and others brought in as replacements.

...

_Each cell member moved forward and formed a kind of semicircle when Max announced it was officially 'Story time!' and explained that they liked to tell everybody's stories when the newest member seemed settled in a bit._

_The others all looked to Tate expectantly. Except Marvin – he just looked irritated._

_I sat straight, my hands on my knees, as Tate began:_

"_As you already know, I was the first one brought in, and Jennsen and Max were brought in soon after. I woke up from my first session and saw them both lying on the floor. Jennsen woke up first, and…"_

_He trailed off and I could tell he hurt talking about this. Because Jennsen was already dead – I knew that much._

"_And she panicked; completely." Max continued. "Took Tate and me forever to get her calm enough to tell us her name and where she came from._

"_Jennsen Rouhles, from the Citadel, taken from Flux we assume, as that was the last place she remembered being. Probably something in her drink…she was in line for the Biotics class, but she never even made it past the first session. She fought them when they tried to put the head device on and it messed her up – they brought her back and she was babbling, eyes unfocused, limbs jerking. We tried talking to her but the damage was too much. She was taken again within the hour it seemed, to be 'dealt with'."_

_Tate rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. Max looked so sad I would've gone and hugged him if I wasn't chained up._

_..._

They shocked us back against the wall not long after Lacy was taken, though they might have used less of the drug than before because I was still semi-conscious as I was lifted onto a hover stretcher, so I was able to keep thinking.

Lacy had been snatched away just like Jennsen; it didn't look good from that perspective. I just prayed Lacy would prove to be strong enough and valuable enough that they would try to fix her rather than replace her.

Noah had actually been brought in a mere session after that, along with the fifth member, a young man named Horace Keller. He didn't say much, not telling them where he was from, not talking at all until after his second session and Donna had been brought in.

...

"_I was awake and watched as the four guys were brought in," Donna started, "I'm from Earth, Russia to be exact. Maybe because I was new, but Horace was more willing to speak to me; he was a nice person, calm and reassuring, Soldier class. But there were complications with the mixture of drugs, and he had a delayed reaction to the implants…it was slow, but after a few more sessions he died. All his major organs, he had internal bleeding, he bled from his orifices…it was very unpleasant."_

_She stated this all matter-of-fact, but I could hear and… kinda feel? Odd… the undercurrent of rage in her low voice._

"_They didn't bother to come take him until he had already bled out," Noah bitterly remarked._

...

Dr. Glasses flipped the switch one more time and waited; I waited too, for the horrible, unbearable pain that came with level five (yeah, I managed to reach level five the past two sessions).

It didn't come; sure it still hurt like hell, but I could handle it. Whoa. I could even form some real thoughts –

-OH MY GAH WHAT JUST-! And there it was, worse than ever before if that was even _possible_! Don't scream don't scream don't give her the satisfaction!

Pure bliss as the device shut off and I let out the breath I had managed to hold on to. Ha! My screams weren't reverberating off the walls today like they had the last couple of sessions. Eat that, bitch!

She removed the device slowly and I screwed my face into a superior glare, wanting to gloat just a little. Though she pretty much ignored me until she looked over the results and smirked at me:

"Congratulations – you have reached level six."

Whoa wait what? Six? Seriously?

"Your level of tolerance is developing quickly; I believe it is time to move things along."

Well zippidi-do-dah for me, aren't I just _special._

Again I had that disturbing feeling that I could _feel_ what she was feeling or thinking or something: she was excited, which didn't seem like a good thing to me. And what did she mean by 'move things along'? That probably wasn't good for me either…

She was talking to someone over her comm, "Yes, Subject 11 is ready for class treatment. Get the exam room ready. And make sure Subject 9 is stable before beginning her class session, we are running out of time to bring in new ones."

Subject 9… who was that? Someone in my cell? Or another cell? My brain still felt sluggish so I had to think carefully to figure who the ninth member of Cell 21 is:

Tate, Jennsen, Max, Noah, Horace, Donna… Marvin had been next.

He had been Alliance, serving on a small ship when it had been attacked by an unmarked vessel, nearly everyone killed and those who had survived had been brought here. He didn't know if any of his squad mates had been placed in cells, and he didn't say anything after that. Marvin didn't talk much.

My thoughts were interrupted by a group of very large men in armored suits entering the lab and Glasses instructing them to lead me to another room. They had guns so I kept my mouth shut and followed rather meekly. I don't like guns, and honestly these guys were scary.

It was nice to not be drugged, to be able to walk to wherever I was being led. I saw a lot of doors and some large windows where I could see more doctors and even a few subjects (they had outfits similar to mine), which got me excited but whenever I tried to get a better look one of the guards would shove me with a gun so I had to keep moving forward.

After about ten minutes we came to a room with an open door and they directed me to sit on an elevated medical bed. The men left and the door swished shut, the lock turning red.

Guess I was waiting for a bit. Now, it was Brandon who was brought in after Marvin…

...

_Brandon was clearly the youngest one here, probably about 18, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he told his story:_

"_Well, I, uh, I had actually just arrived on Omega, actually. I'm from a military family, we moved a lot and such and I decided to strike out on my own after my eighteenth birthday instead of enlisting. Not much for the strict discipline, honestly, they would've kicked me out anyway. I was only on the asteroid for a few days when this guy tried to recruit me for a mercenary group; I wasn't planning on joining, but let the guy talk cuz he was a lot bigger than I am, and the next thing I knew I was waking up here."_

"_Watching him wake up was pretty funny, let me tell you, he tried jumping up but the chains got in his way making him fall, and his confused babbling was-" _

"_Alright, shut it Max!" Brandon snarked back, flushing slightly._

_Max just cracked a grin._

_..._

The humor hadn't lasted long, though – Lacy was next, and she was barely conscious and having a hard time breathing. When she had made eye contact with me, I could see just how tired and sick she was, but I could also see the inner strength she had; Lacy was a fighter, and she wasn't giving up.

At least, she hadn't been - no matter how stubborn you are, your body has limits. And right now my worry was that she had reached hers and surpassed it.

Frustrated, I clapped my hands together and hopped off the bed, pacing as I wondered when whoever was supposed to get here was going to get here. Waiting was annoying. And the floor was freezing.

Sooo… Wes was the newest after me, a nice guy who was part Chinese, and also from Earth. Apparently he had lived in Montana, close to his parents and the people who grabbed him actually got rather creative – they blew up his apartment to make everyone think he was dead. He still had some scars from the fires on his arms and neck.

Before I had thought Wes and Brandon were numbers 7 and 8, given how sick Lacy had gotten I didn't think she was one of the newer ones…

Wait, backtrack, Wes was before me so he was Subject 10 so that would make _Lacy _Subject 9! Right, that's why I was thinking about them in the first place, Glasses had said something about stabilizing Subject 9… oh I hoped that was Lacy and not some other Subject 9 form another cell! If she dies, it would kill Noah, especially because he blames himself for her getting captured in the first place.

The lock flashed green and the door swished open as I hopped back onto the bed.

A middle aged man walked in, looking over files on a datapad, seeming to not even notice me sitting there. He placed the datapad on a table and glanced at me, looking me over.

"Subject 11, I presume? Hold still please, this will only take a few moments."

He began checking me over, a full physical. Took more than a few moments, though I guess the length of a 'moment' is really left up to individual interpretation.

Huh. He didn't seem like such a bad guy, just a doctor going about his business. At least it wasn't 'The Doctor' from my sessions. This doctor was quite polite, not ordering me around or manhandling me.

He was finishing up compiling the data from my check up when Glasses and The Doctor came in and the three had a quiet discussion over the results for a minute or two. Then Glasses looked over at me and back to the nice doc, "So she is ready for Biotic treatment?"

Doc sighed, "None of them are ever _ready_ for anything here, but she meets your qualifications, yes."

Awwww, he didn't like what they were doing! Too bad he was helping them; gotta remember that, he is still a bad guy. It's just so weird to have met a nice person…

"Good, the others are already assembled in the chamber."

Uh oh. They're going to blow me up now, aren't they? That just sucks.

* * *

My armored escort returned and took me a good ways away after Doc gave me a few different injections and they tossed me through a door and into a large room.

There were heavy crates and barriers scattered around the room, all kind of circling a small table that had a cylindrical container standing on it and a domed shield covering a ten foot area around the table. At the base of the container was something that looked like a digital clock, but no numbers were displayed.

The others all looked at me as I stumbled in; there were seven of them, five guys and only two other girls. Everyone seemed to be in their mid-twenties or younger, all wearing the same white clothes, but with different colors lining the garments. Around the collar, zipper, sleeves, hems and cuffs of the pants my outfit was lined in a pale blue – there was also black, grey, red, green, yellow, and white, all pale shades of the colors.

Not sure what to do, I waved awkwardly. Most of the people looked scared and ignored me, but one girl in red and two of the guys, one in black the other in grey, nodded at me with grim expressions.

I stepped up near them, shuffling my feet uncertainly. The room was practically humming with fear and panic. It was hard to not join in.

I expected an alarm or something to start going off, red lights to flash, something to signify that something was about to happen. But the only clue we got was the digital clock on the container turning on with a beep.

It beeped as the numbers flashed and changed. It wasn't a clock. It was a countdown. We had ten seconds.

There were screams and scrambles as people dashed behind crates and barriers to avoid the actual explosion. I almost jumped behind a crate, but stopped myself and stood straight, facing the shield defiantly.

If they wanted to blow me up, they were going to do it properly. I wasn't going to hide from it. The shield was there to temper the explosion anyway; I doubted they wanted to accidentally kill a bunch of their subjects before they were even exposed to the E-zo.

The guy in grey looked at me like I was crazy, but the girl and other guy both stood where they were, and we all watched the clock, my mind suddenly racing.

**00:05**

This was crazy ridiculous. Why was I here?

**00:04**

I had no idea if I could survive this. What if I get the tumors?

**00:03**

If I have to die, I hope it will at least be quick. Maybe I should've hidden behind something…

**00:02**

If I die here, do I go back home? Or am I permanently dead? I hadn't thought about that before.

**00:01**

I close my eyes.

**00:00**


	5. Ch5: Inhibitor

Disclaimer: All rights and ownership of Mass Effect belong to BioWare, I only claim my OCs!

**A/N: Hey! Whew, had to do a bit of rewriting but I got it done! So here it is, the longest chapter yet... I seem to favor long chapters, heh heh...**

**I hope you enjoy, love to all of you who continue to review and love to all who review this chapter! I love reviews (but no flames please, my confidence is fragile) and hope you will tell me what you think!**

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 5

_***Inhibitor***_

The room was filled with a flash of white and the deep blast of the explosion deafened me, the concussion blowing me back and slamming me against a metal crate. I smacked my head hard and collapsed in a heap. My head throbbing and ears ringing, I squinted my eyes open – everything was spinning, fuzzy, and there was a rushing roar in my head that drowned out any noise.

I tried to roll over but a stinging pain down my spine stopped me, made me gasp and I had to take slow, deep breaths to avoid the pain. At least I wasn't dead. Yet.

I saw some of the others, and it appeared that hiding behind the barriers hadn't helped much as they were sprawled on the floor, too. A few were able to get up, but all they could do was stumble around and fall down again.

I don't know how much time passed as I lay there. Big, armored feet suddenly stepped in front of my face. A hand grabbed the collar of my shirt, the gloved fingers cold on my neck.

My vision was still blurry as I watched others get picked up and dragged out. The roar in my head was now a dull whooshing and the ringing was mostly gone, so I could hear a murmur of voices as if through a long tunnel. My eyes wouldn't really focus on anything, it was like the walls were moving…

…oh wait, I was being dragged out, too. That would explain the walls moving, then. Except they weren't moving, I was, but whatever…

My head swam as I was tossed onto the person's shoulders and carried to a room where I was unceremoniously dumped on a flat surface, my hands stretched out to either side and my feet pressed together, followed by clicks.

I lolled my head from side to side, seeing people's hazy figures moving around me. I couldn't comprehend what was going on or what they were saying as their voices buzzed around me.

Everything was spinning, I felt so hot, every nerve suddenly burning. My heart raced as I started hyperventilating. Voices talking more rapidly, something pricked my arm and gradually the heat faded and my pulsed slowed. It was still difficult to breathe, I couldn't seem to get the air into my lungs.

Maybe I said something because they put an oxygen mask on me. The air was cool and clear, a relief.

A man's voice came from nearby, "She is doing well. Prep her for the inhibitor."

There was a short bustle of activity as someone set a metal tray on the cart next to my bed, and then my mask made a 'ssssh' sound.

They were gassing me so they could put the inhibitor chip on my head. No fair.

_Dark flashes of fire and shadow, blasts of sound that would have knocked me over if I weren't trapped in place._

_The monster was back, its hellish eyes boring into me as the voice thundered all around:_

"_**YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR ME, HUMAN. YOU CANNOT HOPE TO RESIST. YOU WILL OBEY. THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE! I HAVE SEEN YOUR MIND; ALL THAT YOU KNOW IS AT MY DISPOSAL. WE WILL PREVAIL. YOU WILL END THE THREAT."**_

_Images rushed into my mind, memories overpowering me, a woman I didn't know burned._

_I screamed and tried to pull away…_

I woke up but squeezed my eyes closed, trying to hang on to the nightmare. I almost had it that time, I could remember someone, or some_thing_, was talking to me, but I couldn't remember what it was saying…

Sighing, I opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was that I didn't have a headache anymore.

The second thing I noticed was I was still lying on the bed, but I wasn't strapped down. Huh.

I sat up –too quickly, major vertigo, ugh. I pressed my hands against my eyes and curled over my knees, trying to get the spinning to stop. After a minute I peeked my eyes open and sighed in relief as everything stayed still.

Wrapping my arms around my knees I looked around; all the others from the Ezo chamber were in the room, each in a bed, two of the men still strapped down. Those who weren't restrained were awake – the two who had stood with me were sitting up and looking around as well; the man in grey was upright, but slumped against the wall; the last guy was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling; and the other girl was curled in a ball, rocking back and forth.

I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but a sharp shake of the head from the man in black made me close it again. Instead, I cocked my head to one side and gave a confused frown. He tapped his throat, shaking his head again, and turned his head to point at a fresh scar at the base of his hairline.

The inhibitor? I out my hand to the back of my neck and sure enough, there was the thin scar, about two inches long. And it wasn't the only one I'd picked up – I had a bandage wrapped around my forearms. Apparently I'd held my arms up for protection without realizing it. It didn't really hurt though, nothing did, so I assumed they had given me pain meds.

One of the men strapped down suddenly let out a yell and started jerking against his restraints, his whole body convulsing in pain as he screamed.

Me and the girl in red hopped off our beds and ran over to him. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, he didn't have any obvious injury… He shrieked and wailed and blood spurted from his mouth, his eyes rolling into his head.

Horrified, both of us put our hands on one of his shoulders to push him down, and she yelled at him to calm down at the same time as I turned my head up to yell at whoever was monitoring the room to get him help. We got a couple words out and suddenly my head seemed to buzz and go numb and both of us hit the floor. My throat clenched and I couldn't breathe for a moment.

Then I was fine. What on Earth? What was that? The inhibitor? Why would it do that, keep us from talking? That was messed up! But it would explain the warning from earlier, why he had kept me from talking.

I looked over at the girl to make sure she was okay; her dark cocoa skin was now pale as she pushed herself back up, and she stared at the now-quiet man on the bed. Her face became sad and fearful.

With a grunt I pulled myself up with the edge of the bedframe and looked at his face. His mouth, chin, and throat were dark with blood, his eyes staring blankly.

He was dead.

I couldn't help but stare at him even as every fiber of my being screamed at me to get away from him. He was dead – he had died, just like that. We hadn't been able to do anything to help, he was just suddenly _gone._ I held my hands away from the bed, telling myself to move, to look away, but in such shock that I just… I mean, I don't handle death well, I can barely handle going to family funerals, and I don't go to visitations, dead bodies just…bother me, the absence of life is… I just can't deal with it, even with dead animals, especially pets, especially not _people,_ and this man was _alive_ just a minute ago, how could he just be gone now…?

My brain suddenly stopped its rambling and I stumbled backward and scrambled onto my bed as the doors opened and a doctor and a group of guards came in and headed for the body.

Rage suddenly rushed through me. What the hell? _Now?_ _Now_ they show up? They could've _helped_ him, they could've done something _before_ he died, so why didn't they?

The girl had retreated to her bed as well, though she didn't look mad like I was sure I did – she looked like she was still in shock. The other subjects just averted their eyes, some seeming not to care while only a few seemed resigned to the fact that they could do nothing.

Something in me snapped.

Hissing between clenched teeth I launched myself at the callous doctor and his men, jumping right over the bed between us. I landed on the doctor's shoulders and we crashed into one of the guards. The doctor yelled something and I punched him in the face, trying to bash his nose into his skull, before a guard wrapped his arms around my chest and yanked me back.

Another tried to grab my legs but I snarled and swung my legs up, kicking him hard enough that he stumbled back, and so did the one holding me. I could hear more ruckuses around me but couldn't look as my second attacker was coming at me again while the first moved one arm down to my hips in an attempt to keep me still.

But my arms were still free so I reached back and grabbed his head, pulling down and making him lurch to the side, thus foiling the second guard who ended up ramming into the doctor. Ha!

I tried elbowing the guard in the face but I still wasn't flexible enough to really pull it off – my elbow just bounce off the side of his helmet and the armor was _extremely _hard so it sent a shock up my funnybone and only managed to further annoy him. But it annoyed him enough that he threw me across the room.

I tumbled against a bedframe and sprang into a crouch, arms held up at my sides, fingers curled like claws. I could see what the ruckus was now – the other subjects, all of'em except the guy restrained, had jumped into the fray and were beating on the guards. Nice.

I flexed my toes against the cold floor and hissed as the guard charged me.

Just before he hit me I tried to dive at his knees in hopes of tripping him, but my head buzzed again and I crumpled, the guard grabbing me and body-slamming us into the wall. My face bounced off his shoulder, bloodying my nose on his armor and dazing me further. Bringing me back to reality. What the heck had I just done? Sure I had snapped a few times back home, but I'm not psycho, I wasn't supposed to snap that bad…

The guard tossed me over a shoulder (again) like a sack of potatoes and I saw the other subjects dropping like flies as their inhibitors were activated. Which brought on another set of questions: Why hadn't they activated them earlier? Why weren't they pre-programmed to stop us? Had they not expected us to fight back, to struggle?

A more disturbing thought was maybe they had, and this was some test to see how we would do… and to show us how futile fighting back is. All they have to do is enable the inhibitors, and that's it. We can't do anything to stop them.

A few of the guards took the body out of the room; the last subject was awake now, looking around in confusion, twitching against his restraints. I couldn't make out what was being said, but the doctor was gesturing wildly and yelling at someone. Each remaining guard took a subject and left the room as the doctor removed the restraints from the last subject. They had a quick discussion and the doctor let him walk out with an escort rather than incapacitate him; he'd probably agreed to cooperate. Smart man.

My guard hooked his arm more securely around my waist and started walking. The inhibitor numbness was wearing off, but my body still felt heavy, and sore from the brawl. His walk was very smooth, not jostling me at all. It would almost be comfortable if he didn't have those pointy plates on his shoulder.

I blinked slowly as the tiny lights on the floor panels blurred. I was so tired…my eyelids felt heavy…

_Again? Really? It was coming, it was watching, I could feel it, the monster was sneering at me…_

"_**THE OTHERS CANNOT HELP YOU, HUMAN. WE WILL NOT FAIL. YOU WILL NOT FAIL. YOU CANNOT RESIST ME! YOU WILL LEARN YOUR PLACE!"**_

_I tried to yell back, to tell the monster to leave me alone, but I couldn't speak. The command flashed through me, I could feel it demanding me to submit, making my mind ache. I wanted it to stop, I needed it to stop!_

"_I will do anything, just make it STOP!"_

_The monster laughed, the horrid sound enveloping me and filling me with dread terror._

I didn't jerk awake as I had so often before. I had actually fallen asleep so waking up was going to be a slow process. I wasn't being carried anymore, but I wasn't lying on the cell floor either. I was held up slightly, propped on something.

My eyes didn't want to open and I could feel myself being pulled back into the realm of dreams… someone stroked my cheek…

Wait, do what now? Whoa, wake up, wake up now, what's going on? Who is touching me?

My brain now wide awake I urged my eyes to open, taking a deep breath through my nose. I was laying on someone, sitting on his lap, my head on his shoulder, his arm curled around my back and waist for support.

"Hey, you awake now? You seemed to be having a pretty bad dream."

A young tenor voice; I pulled back a little and looked up. Sandy blonde hair falling into big brown eyes, thin face tight with concern. Brandon.

Oh…to be honest I'd kinda been expecting Tate. But whatever, Brandon is cool, I like Brandon. But how was Brandon down on my side of the cell? And why weren't we chained up?

I was about to ask when I realized I hadn't answered _his_ question yet. Oops, definitely not totally awake yet…

"Uh, yeah, yeah I'm awake. Um…where are we?" I didn't really feel like talking about my nightmare, especially now that I could recall bits of it.

"Some new room, big and spacious, padded white walls for if we go nuts, even our own bathroom! No more having to wait for the next session to take a leak. Though it's still a form of torture – there's only the _one_ bathroom, for all nine of us. Cruel, huh?"

I was still a bit groggy so my voice slurred some, and I could feel that it amused him as I answered, "Heh, yeah, that's not very…"

I trailed off, staring blankly at Brandon's shoulder as my brain tried to work through something, but I wasn't sure what. He raised an eyebrow, "Megan? You okay?"

Then it clicked, "Nine –you said all 'nine' of us? Is Lacy…?"

He grinned and nodded his head to something behind me. I twisted around, Brandon keeping a hand on my shoulder as I knelt next to him. Lacy was just a few feet away, sitting cross-legged next to Donna and Noah. They were watching me and returned the huge smile I sent their way, relief seeming to radiate form them as Brandon and I moved to sit with them.

She looked so much better! Still pale and tired, we all were by now, but she didn't look as sick anymore.

"You alright?" I asked.

She nodded, a little embarrassed, "Yes, thanks. I got lucky; usually they dispose of subjects who crash, but it's so late in the game now I guess they aren't as willing to start from scratch anymore."

That was good to know, though it made me remember the man who had died from the Ezo exposure. I doubt there was any way they could have revived him, but why hadn't they been keeping an eye out to prevent that kind of thing?

Brandon knocked his shoulder against mine, "Why the sad face?"

Noah's dark eyes scanned my face and figured out the problem. "How many died?"

I looked up and back down, staring at the floor, "Just one that I saw, I guess it was the tumors that got him, or something like that. It was just so sudden, and-"

"Gruesome." Noah finished grimly. "I had to watch nearly half of the group I was with die from the Ezo exposure."

"If so many have died already, why don't they have some way of preventing it? They just wait for them to DIE and then go and grab the body! Why do they just _wait_?"

"Because there's nothing they can do once you've been exposed; the only reason only one died in your group is because they have been improving the treatments Biotic class subjects receive in hopes it will help them survive."

"Would still be nice if they wouldn't make us watch it; they should have the decency to-"

"What makes you think these people would have any kind of decency, Brandon? They're evil!" Donna scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"True," I sighed, "Didn't help that I totally went nuts, either. Completely lost it."

"Wait, you did _what_?" Brandon asked incredulously. The others raised their eyebrows and stared.

I flushed, "I kinda jumped the doctor and his guards and might've… 'inspired' the other subjects to, uh, do the same. Not on purpose, it just kind of happened…"

Brandon clapped his hands together and whooped with laughter, "Excellent!"

"How did you manage that? Didn't the inhibitor stop you?" Donna asked in disbelief.

"It did, but not right away, we got to beat on them pretty good for a minute. Then the inhibitor kicked in and we got carried out."

"That's incredible – we tried but couldn't take more than a few steps before they stopped us."

"Probably because you were a bunch of soldiers who just got hopped up on boosters; you would have totally kicked their butts!" Brandon laughed.

I chuckled when Donna shrugged, looking smug. Noah just shook his head and Lacy actually giggled. I turned my attention back to her.

"So what did they do to help you?"

"Reconfigured the implants, I think, and put me through the paces again, revisiting each device level, but kind of… bouncing between levels. If one got to be too much they would drop it down and then up again to increase my tolerance. It was brutal, but it worked. I'm holding at Level 8, the average level for Tech class subjects."

"Level 8? Holy cow, I can't even imagine hitting that! I feel like Level 6 will kill me if they try it again."

"They expect Techs to reach the higher levels, as they want our brain activity to boost more than anything else for better hacking and such skills. As a Biotic class, Level 7 is about average, though since you have reached Level 6 already you may surpass it as they keep the sessions going."

"How do you know what the class averages are?"

"Hacking – they like to give us minor tests on our skills, allow access to some of their files, unimportant information of course. Soldiers average at Level 6 – though what they base the averages on I don't know, like when they expect you to reach that level. I would guess when the subjects officially start Phase Two and so no longer attend the sessions."

Before I could say anything else, something seemed to tickle in the back of my head, making me whip my head around. The door unlocked and the other four members of Cell 21 were led in by a pair of the really big guards.

And there it was again, the 'feeling' of being aware of someone else; with everyone in the room, being able to touch each other and the freedom to move around, it was all very… pleasant, a kind of warm vibe coming from everybody.

Except Marvin, again – from him I got the distinct feeling of suspicion, negativity. He was still irritated by something, and his irritation seemed to grow as he watched everyone being friendly and happy.

We stood to greet them and I hung back, unsure and slightly overwhelmed until Tate spotted me and smiled, making a beeline for me and reaching out to put a hand on my shoulder.

"I am glad to see you; I was worried they had taken you in too early. I am… very relieved that you are alright."

And when Tate touched me I felt a rush of warmth –from him and me – and something else I couldn't put my finger on. I could feel my face start to heat up, so I was quite relieved when Max dashed over and nearly tackled me in a bear hug, lifting me off the ground and spinning me around.

It made me and most of the others laugh, and the soldier kept an arm around my shoulders as Wes came over to ask how I was and Marvin acknowledged me with a nod.

It seemed the awareness of a person was amplified by touch and Max had kind of a happy, almost bubbly feel that made me relax so I wasn't bothered by him keeping a hold on me as we huddled to compare stories. I'm not sure why Tate had made me so uncomfortable, because it hadn't been in a self-conscious kind of way… not completely anyway, but there had been a kind of edge to what I felt from him.

I wanted to ask if anybody else had the same 'feelings' that I did, but was too scared in case they thought I was being weird or a freak.

Marvin didn't join us but I could tell he wanted to as he sat in a corner and closed his eyes, laying his head against the wall. Why he wouldn't join us I couldn't figure out. Probably cuz he doesn't like me.

Anyway, after a few minutes we all had a good laugh when Wes and Brandon started fighting over who was going to get to use the bathroom first, and even the food seemed a bit more bearable now that we weren't chained up (though still had the cuffs) and the headache was gone and had yet to come back.

For once, things seemed almost normal.

I should've realized it wouldn't last long.


	6. Ch6: InFighting

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, all rights belong to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 6

**A/N: Soooooo...this took WAY longer to write and post than I thought it would. Sorry! o The overall idea for this chapter ended up being much too long so I had to split it in half... so the good news is there will be another chapter up in the next few days! Woo hoo! Got more character/plot building here and to follow, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_***IN-FIGHTING***_

Oh how I long for the days when I could take an ibuprofen and my headache would go away. And STAY away. But noooo, they _had_ to take me for another session and push my brain harder than before. I'd reached Level 7. So my headache had returned with a vengeance.

It hadn't been the same type of session though – after the head device torture, the 'nice' doctor had returned to take some blood samples and scan my head, something to do with the Ezo exposure stuff, and another guy talked the whole time about Biotics and how to know what your limits are, not to push them and be careful, how to control them, yada yada yada. He wouldn't shut up and his voice was so annoying I wanted to bang my head against the wall.

This was probably their idea of a 'crash course' in using my new Biotics, which had yet to make an appearance. Honestly, I had _really_ been looking forward to being able to use my new superpowers, but so far, nuthin'. I was very disappointed, but felt better when Brandon and Noah told me they hadn't been able to use theirs either; we figure the inhibitors were behind it. Lame.

I was lying on my back in one corner of the room, trying to take a nap, when a few of the others burst into laughter at some weird story Max was telling.

I groaned at them and rolled onto my stomach, grabbing my collar and pulling my shirt up so it covered my ears, "You guys are sooo looouuud…"

Max just laughed at me, "Aw c'mon, we're having fun!"

"Well have more quiet fun, I'm trying to – EEYAHH!" I rolled onto my back and curled away from him, tucking myself into the corner.

Max had hopped over and danced his fingers across my exposed lower back.

Omagah it tickled, I was still ticklish, _why did I still have to be so flaming ticklish?_

Max crowed, "No way, you're _ticklish_! This is _AWESOME!_"

I turned beet red and panicked, "I am not! You – you're fingers are like icicles! You froze me!"

"Ha! Liar liar pants on fire!"

"Oh come on, what kind of grown man says that?"

"You are _so_ ticklish, I just know it, I can tell! You can't fool me!"

I hissed at Max and called out, "Tate! Call'im off!"

"Down, Max."

Max rolled his eyes, "Woof, woof."

He gave me a wicked grin and I hissed at him again. The rest of the cell was laughing at us of course, though Lacy was being nice enough to tell Max to leave me alone.

He sighed, "Fine, I'll be good."

"How about you be quiet, too?"

Dead silence as everybody turned to look at Marvin, who had been stubbornly silent since we were relocated to the room. As I looked at him I realized he didn't appear near as antagonistic as he did before – to me he just looked and sounded really tired. Maybe a bit impatient.

Seems most of the others only picked up on the impatient part.

"Well why don't _you _keep quiet?" Brandon scoffed irritably.

"Yes, you've been doing such a good job up 'til now," Max snorted.

I could feel the tension and hostility in the air skyrocket. Marvin's face tightened, but he didn't say anything in response. That was an improvement in his attitude at least.

But I figured I should say something, "Lay off you guys, all he did was ask you to be quiet."

Marvin looked at me, clearly baffled, as did Max and a few of the others.

I just raised my eyebrows, "What?"

Max shook his head, "Well anyway, where does he get off telling us what to do?"

"He didn't tell you what to do, he made a suggestion-"

"In a snarky manner…" Brandon popped in.

"Megan did too just a minute ago and you didn't bite her head off," Lacy pointed out.

"Yeah, but she's her and he's him – big difference."

"Oh now that's not fair-" I started but Max interrupted me with a huff,

"Well fine then, I won't tell him to shut up."

He folded his arms over his chest and just stared at the other Soldier, who looked back warily. I knew Max wasn't done, he wasn't just going to leave it at that; Marvin had been pestering them longer than he had been me, so I guess I could understand. Though he and Brandon were still being jerks, too.

Then Max got to the point, "Alright Alliance boy, tell me this: you've been an ass since day one. Any particular reason why or are you just an ass in general?"

Tate sighed, "Max, _why-_"

Marvin finally snapped, glaring venomously at Tate. Okaaaay, mega hostility there, and singularly directed at Tate; Max and Brandon had just annoyed and irritated him, so why get so mad at Tate? Nobody had told _me_ of anything Tate had said or done to piss him off.

"And just what is your problem _now_?" Tate asked heatedly, getting to his feet.

Everyone could sense the brewing conflict and we stood when Marvin did, and he marched to stand only a foot from Tate. The two men stood there for a moment, trying to glare-stare the other down.

Tate broke the silence, "Max is right, ever since you got here you've done nothing but mope, complain, and attack everyone-"

"I haven't attacked _everyone-_"

"Oh, right , you left Lacy alone, good for you! But what is your issue with me? What did I do or say that made you decide I am your mortal enemy?"

The three of us girls were trying to talk them down, calm them – it would seriously suck if a real fight broke out or the inhibitors had to take us down. Or both.

It looked like Max, Brandon, and Noah were ready to back up Tate; Wes was standing to the side, eyes narrowed as he watched and listened.

Marvin puffed himself up as he snarled back, "It's not what you _did_ say, it's what you _haven't _said!"

"Right, because that makes sense… What is that even supposed to _mean_?"

"It means that while you continued to insist we all tell everybody who we are, where we came from, and how we got here, you have NEVER told us _anything_ about yourself. Who gives a damn if you were the first one in this cell; I'm more interested in _how _you're here and why!"

"'Why?' I'm here because these deranged scientists want to conduct illegal experiments on people!"

"That's why we're all here! I mean _you_, specifically _you_! Who are you? How did they manage to 'capture' you, and where from?"

Donna broke in, "Marvin please, why would he _not_ tell us? You probably just don't remember-"

"Can you tell me where he's from then? Or anything about him at all?"

She opened her mouth but stopped, her expression becoming confused and uncertain. She looked back at Tate, who was looking tense and clenching his jaw.

"You see?" Marvin snarled, jabbing his finger in Tate's face, "Nothing! We know _nothing_ about him! Yet you all treat him like your 'glorious leader', trusting him without fail! For all we know he was planted in here! He could be one of_ them_!"

Shock was the general feeling in the room…was he serious? That was outrageous and insane, where did he even come up with that?

Tate's expression suddenly became very hard and cold and his eyes darkened as he gave Marvin a deep glowering glare, his lips pressed together in a thin line. He looked absolutely terrifying. I was impressed with Marvin – he had a lot of guts to just stand there and glare back.

Tate growled out, "I am NOT one of _them, _you paranoid, pessimistic, conspiring-"

I decided it was time to put my 'Big Girl Panties' on (as my sister Melody would say) and I shoved them apart and stepped between them. Marvin of course turned his glare on me, but thankfully Tate kept his death-glare on Marvin.

"This is _beyond_ ridiculous!" I declared, and snapped my scowl on Marvin. "Did you really think attacking Tate would solve anything? Seriously dumb idea!"

"But he does have a point, Megan," Wes interjected.

Everybody else looked at him in surprise but I nodded and gave him a quick double-thumbs up.

"I agree; so _you-"_ I swiveled my head to look Tate in the eye, "Answer his questions."

Tate was incredulous, "Excuse me?"

"This whole thing could've been avoided if you had just given him a straight answer, so-"

"He attacked Tate! Why do you want to make it Tate's fault?" Max demanded.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not saying it's his fault, but Wes is right that Marvin has a point: Tate _hasn't _told us where he came from or how he got here. Do I think he's some sort of spy? No, of course not. He stays so focused on the rest of us so he probably never thought it mattered."

"I'm right here y'know," Tate snapped.

I frowned at him, "Sorry, but just, I mean, just tell us then – it's not like it's a big deal. And Marvin will back off once you do. Right Marvin?"

"Only if he's telling the truth."

"Well, good enough," I shrugged and turned back to Tate, "Sooo… where are you from and how'd you get here?"

He gave me a frustrated look and rubbed the back of his neck; then he said, "I grew up on Earth alright? And went to a work-study on a colony; I was working when a colleague tricked me and I ended up here. Satisfied?"

Marvin continued to glare, "Maybe."

"Ugh! Marvin give him a break, he answered you! He wasn't 'hiding' anything from us!"

He still didn't look convinced; neither did Wes. Tate was clearly getting impatient. Marvin looked down at me and I was pleasantly surprised to see no hostility directed at me.

"So how do we know he's not hiding anything else?"

"Duh, we ask him – Tate, are you hiding anything from us?"

"No," was his immediate answer.

_**LIAR.**_

I froze. Completely. I vaguely heard Noah say, "See? Now relax people-"

"Megan what's wrong?" Donna asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I couldn't answer, but just stared at Tate, trying to keep my face blank, and he was watching me in confusion. Both my natural instincts and my new ones were screaming at me, rooting me to the spot.

He'd lied. Tate had lied. He _was_ hiding something. He was lying, he –no, I shouldn't be having such a strong reaction to this, this could be something totally minor… but some part of me, the new instinct, was telling me that this was a big deal, this was bad…

A big hand on my shoulder made me blink and slowly turn my head; trying to control the urge to yell at Tate was making it difficult to do much else. Marvin was looking me over with concern; a tiny part of me noted that that seemed a bit out of character. The rest of me tried to make myself talk normally, but no sound came out.

When Marvin saw the blank shock on my face he looked from me to Tate and back again. I followed his gaze to Tate, who was looking between us anxiously, but I couldn't tell if he was worried about me or about himself.

Marvin grabbed my chin and turned my eyes back to him; now he looked rather -excited? -as he asked, "You too? You understand now, right?"

This was why Marvin didn't trust Tate? He could tell from the very first? I bobbed my head in a weird nod while the others demanded to know what was going on. Tate grabbed my shoulders and pulled my away from Marvin, making me stumble and Wes caught my elbow to steady me.

"What, Soldier? What are you trying to get her to understand?" Tate snapped.

"She gets it now! You ARE hiding something, something big, I can feel it! Now she can, too!"

"I'M NOT HIDING ANYTHING!"

"STOP IT! STOP IT, STOP _LYING_! YOU'RE LYING, TATE!" I yelled, clamping my hands over my ears. The _**LIAR **_accusation was resonating again, more strongly than before and making me sick and lightheaded, but this time it seemed to snap me back to reality and my temper flared.

I glared at Tate and he stood rigidly in a defensive stance, face devoid of emotion, "You don't know what you're talking about Meg."

"The hell I don't! You – you weren't lying before, but you are now! When you say you aren't hiding anything! That was a lie, I could feel it!"

"Oh please, you can't 'feel'-"

"Yes you can; I did too," Wes stated quietly.

"Oh really?" Tate scoffed.

"Yes; clearly not as strongly as she did, but there was something…wrong with what you said. It was not true."

"And you're basing this on your _feelings_?" Brandon asked sarcastically, though there was an edge to his voice.

Noah was looking defiant as he stood behind Tate and Max's expression was wary; Donna and Lacy seemed torn. Wes and I took a few steps back to stand with Marvin, who looked surprised and awkwardly gratified.

He locked stares with Tate again, "I've been able to tell that there was something different about you from the start. Now that some of the others can tell, are you going to keep denying it?"

"I have _nothing_ to say to you."

I didn't like this, and I knew I was overreacting due to the whole 'extra awareness' thing, but I was also supremely pissed off… of course I felt it was up to me to try and smooth things over,

"Would you at least do us the courtesy of _admitting_ that you're hiding something and quit lying to us? If you don't want to tell us what it is, then just explain that! It doesn't matter if it doesn't affect anything here, and if you're such a good guy and it _does_ affect what's going on, I don't get why you can't just explain it to us!"

Then he snapped that glare on me, the death-glare, that nasty condescending look of loathing he had given Marvin and I shrank back, bumping into Wes who pulled me partially behind him.

"I don't owe you, or anyone else here, _any _kind of explanation," he said in a dangerously calm, tight voice through lips that barely moved, "And I'm not telling you a damned thing. This discussion is over."

With that he turned his back and marched to the other side of the room.

His sudden meanness seemed to have made up Lacy and Donna's minds and, if still not on Marvin's side then at least on mine as they came and hugged me, which helped me unfreeze. Now it was the other guys who seemed confused – they were on Tate's side and happy to argue with Marvin, but they liked me and the others, and Noah was clearly upset that Lacy was siding 'against' them. I think he was on Tate's side in the first place because he had helped take care of Lacy before.

We stood there awkwardly until Max slowly swung around and walked off to plop down a few feet from Tate and Brandon followed. Noah hesitated at being 'alone', shot a pained look at his cousin and went off to sit by himself.

Our group drifted apart too, no one really sitting together except for Lacy going to Noah and laying her head on his shoulder, which made him relax and hug her briefly. Marvin sat fairly close to me and I could tell that the hostility he had been holding on to the whole time was pretty much gone – even he seemed surprised at Tate's reaction.

"Sorry for dragging you into this," he mumbled, "I never thought he would go off on any of you like that; me, yes, but…"

"It's not totally your fault; I mean, you didn't _drag_ me into it, I kinda jumped in. I thought I could help. Boy was I wrong."

"Yeah, well… sorry for, you know, being an ass in general."

"Oh, well, you're forgiven. Not a big deal."

"Thanks…"

We got quiet; that was nice to have out of the way, though it was odd to be over here making friendly with Marvin while Tate is over there brooding and mad at me.

I just didn't get why he wouldn't tell us anything, even if it was just that he didn't want to talk about it. I mean, it couldn't be that bad could it? He wasn't a spy or anything, I knew that much. And he didn't have to be such a jerk about it; he could have been civil about it and not bitten our heads off.

Everyone was silent and we stayed that way until a group of the guards came to escort us out. Since we all had inhibitors now they weren't knocking us out – they just hooked our cuffs together to make movement more controllable.

And they lined us up by class, Biotics in front, Soldiers in the middle, and Techs in the back. I felt like I was back in grade school…but teachers didn't carry around big electrified sticks to zap you with if you got out of line. They didn't have guns either – really big guns, too, that made me very uncomfortable. I'm not a big fan of guns to put it mildly, especially ones pointed at me.

Brandon was on my right as we were led down a long hallway and I could feel him growing more uncomfortable and upset by the minute. Finally I took a step closer and whispered:

"Are you okay? You seem more upset."

He scowled at the floor and then glanced over at me, "I don't like what happened back there, that was messed up. I mean, I'm sorry I mouthed off at you guys about the whole 'feelings' thing. Heck, maybe if I'd kept my mouth shut in the first place that fight would never have happened."

I snorted, "With their issues? Please, that was just waiting to blow up."

"Yeah I guess."

"I just wish Tate trusted us enough to tell us what's eating at him."

Noah, on my left, nodded in agreement. I hadn't realized he was listening. Unfortunately, Max had been too.

"Why should he trust you when you don't trust him?" he leaned forward and hissed in my ear. On the verge of snapping again, I spun around and got right up in his face, making him nearly run into me. He jerked back in surprise and the guards ordered us to keep moving, but I wanted to have my say first.

As quietly as I could I hissed back, "I trusted him completely up to the point where he lied to my face and talked like I was stupid, getting nasty at me for calling him on it. Remember that next time, you overgrown farmboy."

He gawped at me and out of the corner of my eye I saw Marvin grin before a guard stuck his gun at my head and hauled me around by my collar. I jerked away from him, glared, and kept walking.


	7. Ch7: 'Special Feelings'

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect! All rights and awesomeness belong to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 7

**A/N: Ta Da! And here is the second half of that super long chapter that I made into two! Hope you enjoy!**

****Okay, I edited the chapter, THANK YOU to CuHnadian for pointing out that the fighting was over a bit too fast, it made me take another look: I had accidentally posted the first version of this chapter when I was trying to make it short enough to all fit into Chapter 6. Heh heh, Oops... So I fixed it! This is what I meant to put up, sorry for any confusion! O_o Hopefully this will make more sense!****

* * *

_***'Special Feelings'***_

I sat on the metal counter, scowling at the floor. The session hadn't lasted long since Glasses had tried me on Level 8 and I'd literally DIED for a second.

Level 8 = Bad Idea.

So they'd taken me to Doc again; he had 'wired' me for my Biotic Amplifier so that I could actually use them. When I asked him if it was an L2 or L3 configuration, he said neither: it is one he had made, using the best elements of both.

And he kept trying to play nice, attempting to draw me into a conversation and smiling at me like he was a normal doctor and I was a normal patient. I ignored him for the most part, my mind filled with the argument with Tate and the others. I don't like fighting, especially with people I like and get along with. I was trying to think of a way I could help fix it when I go back, but the doctor just would not shut up! It was really getting annoying, especially given that I was already frustrated.

"Would you just cut it out? I'm not going to like you, so give it a rest already," I snapped.

He paused, face drawn, and he sighed, "I'm not your enemy. I'm trying to help you."

"Help me? Do you even know my name? Or am I just 'Subject 11C21B3' to you?"

He didn't answer.

"That's what I thought. You work for the bad guys – that makes you a bad guy. End of story."

Doc shook his head, "It's not that simple, they don't just walk up to you and tell you who they are and what they are doing. They used false pretenses to get me here; I thought it was a legitimate medical research facility until I arrived and they informed me of what I was really here for."

He sighed, "That's how some of us were brought in anyway, but too many enjoy what they do here. I tried to leave, but that isn't an option – your friend had been one of their top scientists, but when he crossed them they didn't blink before making him a subject-"

"Excuse me?" I stared at him, eyes wide. My '_friend_'? Which... oh no. No way.

He frowned and looked uncomfortable. "Your friend, the Tech, he – you didn't know?"

I shook my head wordlessly.

"Oh – oh no, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything, just pretend you didn't – I mean…" He trailed off when he saw the stony look on my face and he didn't say anything else as he applied the amplifier and buzzed Glasses to let her know he was done.

* * *

She strapped me in the head device again and decided to use the same tactic they had used to fix Lacy: crank it up to 8, immediately down to 6, up to 7 and 8 again, and repeat until I was able to survive Level 8. I could handle it for a few seconds before screaming bloody murder.

In a twistedly morbid way I was glad she was messing with my head because I wasn't able to think about anything else, so my conversation with Doc was put away until a pair of guards came to escort me. My head was spinning as I walked, and I realized it was also a bad thing being held back because it had had time to stew in my head – what was I supposed to do now? I had been trying to get over it, but then Doc dropped that bombshell and now... I was definitely pissed, but also deeply depressed.

I really hadn't once considered Tate actually working for Cerberus, being a … bad guy. Doc made it sound like he had worked for them a while before 'crossing them', whatever that meant… Tate had said he wasn't one of them, but hadn't said he had _never been_ one of them. Knowing that he had been was hard to swallow. I just couldn't make that work in my head.

I was going to snap, I just knew it, but I was determined to keep myself in check. I didn't want to fight again. Crap, I really didn't want to, but that stupid, lying, manipulative –

The door was suddenly there and open and the guards shoved me in. Not everybody was back yet, only Marvin, Donna, Brandon, Max…and Tate. He was sitting in the same spot as earlier, his arms crossed over his drawn up knees, eyes closed, his chin on his chest.

I stood in front of the door, not trusting myself to move; he didn't seem hostile, he seemed...upset. Brandon was closest and he came over to whisper in my ear, "He's been like that since we got back, he's not mad or anything, just seems real depressed; I think he heard us earlier or Max told him-"

I held a finger in his face to get him to stop talking; he clamped his mouth shut. I would make sure to apologize for my rudeness and thank him for trying to help later. Right now I had to deal with this or my head was going to explode.

At that moment Tate lifted his head and looked directly at me. He very slowly got to his feet, bracing himself as I stalked toward him, the others watching and staying out of the way. He seemed to know that I knew, so I decided to get right to the point. I tried to keep my voice calm to keep myself from flipping out, but it was strained and I couldn't keep it from shaking:

"You – you lying, traitorous little-"

"Megan, please…" he was pleading with me, trying to get me to calm down. Yeah, like that was gonna work.

"We trusted you, all of us, we trusted you! Except Marvin, he was the smart one, he saw right through you…"

"No, I can explain-"

"THERE'S NOTHING TO EXPLAIN! YOU WERE ONE OF THEM! YOU WORKED FOR THEM, YOU JUST GOT CAUGHT MESSING UP!"

"NO! They tricked me into coming here, I pretended to work for them and then I tried to escape!"

"YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO US THE WHOLE DAMN TIME, WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU TELL ME?"

"Because… because you can tell if I'm actually lying or not, can't you?"

Well...yes, dangit, but at this point I didn't really care, or I didn't want to care… I let out a bark of laughter to try and sound tough, "I thought that was a load of hogwash?"

"I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't've-" I could hear the guys in the back, now including Wes, debating whether they should step in or not… part of me was hoping they would.

"So those 'feelings' only apply when they help you? Sorry pal, doesn't work that way." But blast it, I could tell he was telling the truth. How annoying; I wanted to be mad now, but my common sense was getting in the way. And also I was like 'yay, he wasn't really a bad guy!', it was getting all mixed up in my head, I wanted to just get over it.

And I was beginning to feel oddly twitchy, hyper, like I get when I'm slap-happy and have a sudden energy surge, and it was making me really tense, like I wanted to hit something. Maybe Tate could sense me weakening, because he took a hesitant step forward and held one hand out.

"I'm sorry, please let me-"

"Don't _touch_ me!" I snapped, as much a warning to him as the last bit of my annoyance coming out.

I shoved him by the shoulders to get him to back off – and glowing white energy blasted out of my arms and threw him across the room, slamming him into the wall.

I felt the blood drain from my face as I clamped my hands over my mouth in shock and my eyes were bugging as he landed on his knees, coughing like he'd had the breath knocked out of him. I could feel the shocked silence of the others, all of them returned. Panic and guilt overruled the last bit of my anger and I stood there, wanting to go help him up, but geez I just _did_ that, how had I…?

Tate shook his head to clear it and put a hand on one knee as he started to push himself up and he looked at me with an expression of disbelief and almost anger – which quickly changed to one of surprised amusement as he saw how I was standing there.

He tried to school his face to hide it, but a choked-off snort of laughter escaped him. Now I was gawping at him in disbelief: he was laughing? I had just _attacked_ him after biting his head off and he thought it was _funny_?

"Uh, are you two oka-" Max started and I suddenly dashed across the room and into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

Oh! I was so embarrassed! And confused! Oh my gosh, why had I done that? I'm nuts, a psycho, they've driven me completely mad! My rollercoaster emotions were proof – I was crazy! How had I done that? Biotics? Nah, Biotics are supposed to be blue, not white. God, why had he laughed? What was so funny? He's supposed to be mad at me!

He was laughing full out now, I could hear him, along with the new returnees asking what had happened. Tate's laughter had a definite ring of relief to it as he knocked on the door and I hunkered down against the wall and pressed my red face into my hands. Aaauuugghh…

"Open the door Meg, come on."

"No!" I squeaked.

He laughed again, "I'm not mad, I promise. Come out please? At least open the door, I want to talk to you."

"Nuh uh."

I heard him sigh and then chuckle, and then a series of whirring noises. The door swished open; I peeked up and scowled, "How'd you do that?"

"I'm a Tech, remember? Hacking is what I do. You going to get up?" He looked amused still, but I could tell he was trying to hide the fact that he was nervous.

Frustrated and not knowing what to react, I stuck my tongue out at him, blew him a raspberry, and plopped myself on the floor, staring at my feet and pouting. I was so confused I just didn't know what to do, I'm an awkward person. He just laughed again – I still didn't get what was so funny – and he surprised me by picking me up and carrying me out.

"Ah! Hey what the – you nut, put me down!"

"Nope." He said cheerily.

I peeked up at him uncertainly as he carried me over to the others, "Wait, so... you're really not mad? I mean, I threw you into the wall. After yelling at you, and being mean and stubborn."

"Of course I'm not mad, you were right that I could have helped avoid this conflict. And you weren't being mean, you had every right to yell at me. I also doubt you _meant_ to throw me into the wall - you looked rather surprised."

"Well why did you laugh? I didn't think it was very funny."

"You're face was priceless, Megan. I couldn't help it." he explained as he swung me back down.

My face, ears, and neck were burning as I shoved my hair out of my face and stood awkwardly, feeling even worse knowing that Marvin and Wes at least could 'feel' my embarrassment. I was bouncing my hand against my leg as I alternated frowning at the floor and glancing at Tate.

"Sorry, for...throwing you, and the whole yelling thing. I'm glad you didn't actually get hurt." Yes, I am definitely an awkward person.

He just smiled at me and was about to say something when Marvin spoke hesitantly:

"And I apologize for my... hostility. I did not handle any of that well either."

Tate nodded, "I'm also sorry for the way I acted, and for lying to everyone." He took a deep breath. "I owe you all an explanation."

We sat in a circle as Tate finally told his story: "I was working in a genetic research lab when the job offer came in and my supervisor recommended I accept. I still don't know if he knew what was going on; I hope not. Anyway, when I reached the designated meeting place, my contact immediately had me on another transport, something about keeping the location a secret. I was suspicious, but went along with him. And we came here – not exactly sure where this facility is, but I know we are in the Terminus Systems. They showed me around and put me through 'Orientation': that's when I learned what I had really signed up for."

He shook his head, "I tried to opt out, but of course they wouldn't let me. So I pretended to cooperate, studying the files of current subjects and plans for new ones. But while I worked, I also created a virus that I thought could override their security protocols for at least a few minutes so I could get a message out. But I underestimated them and I was caught – the only reason I wasn't killed outright was because I was a match for their Tech class and they thought it would be amusing for me to be the first cellmate so I could see what happened to each and every person brought in."

He looked at me, "How did you put it together?"

"Oh – well it wasn't too hard, the Biotic doctor pretty much laid it out for me. On accident though; he keeps trying to be my friend and I keep telling him to stuff it."

Tate frowned, "That must be Dr. Saroial; we had just started working together before I got caught. We were working on a special Biotic Amp when I let the virus loose."

"That the one they're using on us?" Brandon asked.

"I would assume so."

I tapped my fingers against my chin, "Um...was that what I did earlier? Use Biotics, I mean? Cuz aren't they usually blue?"

"Yes, they usually are," Noah answered, "It was Biotics though, and I can only think that they are white because of the addition they made to the Element Zero, or a side effect of their impants and other treatments. Possibly both."

"Huh... well okay then. Guess nothing should really surprise me that much anymore."

Lacy leaned forward, "Okay, before anything else happens or we got off on some random topic, does anyone else need to get something off their chest?"

"Yes," Marvin sounded uncomfortable, "I really was being horrible before, even to those of you who hadn't done anything really...I want to apologize to all of you now, and I assure it won't happen again."

Max sighed as he looked at his fellow Soldier, "Well I guess I wasn't real nice about it either, so we're even." He swiveled his head to look at me, "You have anything to say?"

"Uh, about what?"

"You called me an 'overgrown farmboy'!"

He grinned at me as everybody laughed and I teased, "You're from a farming colony and you're huge! What'd you expect me to call you?"

"Hmm...good point. I'll let you get away with it cuz you're cute!" he announced and he suddenly wrapped me in a huge hug and squeezed.

"Gah! Go lay on somebody else!" I said as I shoved him off.

"Okay!" And he popped across the circle and wrapped around Lacy, who dissolved into giggles.

"Careful pal, she's married," Noah warned with a smirk.

Max pulled a face at him, "Get your mind out of the gutter. Nasty Noah. There, now you have a nickname."

I rolled my eyes as I laughed, watching Noah pry Lacy out of Max's grasp, and Max just heaved a big fake sigh and came to sit between me and Tate again.

There was silence for a few moments after and it was a comfortable silence.

"So… everything's good now? Just to be sure." Wes asked. We all looked at each other and nodded. Amazingly the tension was just gone.

"Yeah, we're good." Marvin answered.

"Oh, uh, one quick question – about these 'feelings'? Does everyone have those? Or is it just some of us?" Donna popped in.

"Dunno – raise your hand if you have special feelings!" Max hollered, sticking his hand in the air.

Shaking my head at his antics, I raised my hand. Everybody did. All of us? Nice. That must be _why_ all the tension was gone; well, it was really cool when everybody could in some way tell that you were sorry, and know that nobody was pretending to not be mad at someone else. It made getting over stuff a lot easier

"Interesting; do you think we could do something with this?" Wes wondered aloud as we lowered our hands.

"My question is how did we develop these special feelings? I mean, is it like telepathy or something? Like a superpower?" Brandon asked excitedly.

"Maybe. I think it has to do with the head device: the purpose is to increase brain activity, so these… abilities may be a side effect, and I believe I am correct in assuming that everyone's works differently?" We nodded at Tate's explanation and question and he continued, "And has anyone been able to use these abilities on anyone outside of ourselves?"

I have always been good at reading people, but my new instincts hadn't acted on anyone other than my cellmates. And all around 'No', it was strictly a cell thing. So far, anyway.

"Our constant proximity probably has something to do with it being just us," Lacy put in and Tate nodded.

"And I'm pretty sure each cell's implants run on separate frequencies from the others," he said, "so once we all received them we became linked by that frequency."

"So, our heads are like radios?" Brandon again.

"Sounds more like walkie-talkies, er, communicators," I quickly corrected myself; I had no idea if anybody talked about 'walkie-talkies' anymore.

"Can anybody actually read anyone's mind? That would be a bit disturbing to me," Donna asked.

Again, no, thank goodness, it was all like intuition and such.

"Well maybe if we-" Wes didn't get to finish as the doors opened. Food time? No, not unless they were now sending a full guard squad to deliver it. I sighed as we stood; what now?

* * *

The room they took us to was dark and the door seemed much louder than usual as it closed behind us. It was rather cute when all the guys stepped forward to form a barrier between us girls and whatever the room held.

"Welcome Cell 21." Came an emotionless, automated female voice.

"VI," Tate whispered back to us. I wanted to say something about 'Captain Obvious', but decided to keep that to myself.

Then the room started lighting up, rows upon rows of tiny red lights between small panels on the floor, forming a ginormous grid, the lights starting up in front of us and crossing the room, and the red lights continued up the walls and onto the ceiling. There was another door on the opposite side of the room and the tops of the walls were lined with blacked out windows.

The huge empty room was now illuminated in humming red lights. Creepy.

"You will now begin training for Phase Two," the VI informed us. Some of the lights disappeared as panels slid or sank out of the way, large metal objects rising out of the floor and the lower portion of the wall. Well… this could be bad.


	8. Ch8: Training

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, all rights and awesomeness belong to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 8

* * *

**A/N: Oh my goodness thanks for the reviews and alerts :D ! A quick note, at the end of this chapter is a swap of POV, it will be separated, and may happen in other chapters as well, though not often.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

_***TRAINING***_

We didn't know what was going on and we braced ourselves, and my Biotics surprised me by suddenly flaring up again all over me. Brandon and Noah's did, too, and while Brandon's were the same glowing white as mine, Noah's seemed an odd mix of blue and white. Maybe as a result of his pre-exposure? And what made ours white anyway? Something to think on later…

There was now a maze of barriers and walls of varying heights and lengths filling the huge room. Odd… but nothing else was happening. The windows lining the top of the walls were tinted so we couldn't see through them, but I could feel someone watching me, watching us. What were they waiting for?

The panels right in front of us dropped out and we jumped back as a long tray came out of the floor and rose up to waist level; there were nine small discs on the tray, each with a digital readout of 10:00.

"Each subject must place the Shield Disc on his or her left wrist cuff to begin the exercise," the VI stated. That voice was getting rather annoying.

We looked at each other, confused, but we each took a disc and placed it on the front surface of the cuff. With a click and a beep the disc hooked to the cuff and the numbers started to flash.

"Not cool!" Brandon yelped as he tried to pry the disc off.

"Your objective is to reach the other side of the training room. Use any means at your disposal. You have ten minutes, beginning now." The readout stopped flashing and started counting down.

"Wait, what? We just… go through the maze?" Donna asked in disbelief.

"No, there is something more to this. There always is." Wes stated as he eyed the walls warily.

"Well, let's get on with it and find out. I don't want to think about what might happen if we don't make it within the time limit," Marvin suggested.

Tate took the lead and we entered the maze warily; at first nothing happened – then a glowing red drone popped out of a wall and shot at us. The shots were aimed at me and Lacy, but were ineffectual due to shields we didn't know we had. The eight little red lights circling the readout on my disc flashed and one blanked out.

Uh oh.

"Let's go, let's go!" Noah grabbed Lacy and ran and the rest of us scrambled to follow. But I noticed Tate lagging behind.

"What're you doing?" I yelled as we both ducked another shot and dove behind a wall.

"Trying to figure out how to disable it so it can't follow us!" he hollered in answer even as we heard more shots up ahead and Donna rolled back into view, eyes wide as she crouched next to us.

"Good God there's more of'em up there!" she gasped.

Max was swearing at the top of his lungs and there was a lot of yelling followed by loud crashing noises.

Frustrated, Tate peered over the wall and ducked back down to us, "If I can get it close enough, I can use the EM field to jam its gun and short it out."

"Why not just hack it and use it?" Donna asked.

"That would take longer and we are running out of time."

"_This_ is taking too long, we need to go!" I urged, and was about to pop up and try using my Biotics when Tate suddenly sprang up, putting his right fist out with his left hand over the cuff as the drone zoomed at us. Something like static electricity sparked around Tate's hands and the drone froze, circuits whirring and then it exploded. Cool.

We ran to where we thought the others were, hit a dead end, and had to double back.

Six minutes left.

We passed a pile of broken mechs that looked like they'd been smashed by something; Lacy let out a shriek and there were more shots and yelling, as well as that funny mechanical noise mechs make. We were almost to them when three smallish mechs rounded a corner, raising their guns.

I didn't even think before throwing both my hands out – a wave of white energy slammed into the mechs, tearing one of them apart and damaging the others, throwing them back. Donna dashed forward, moving so fast she was a blur, and with two lightning-swift kicks the mechs had no heads.

Okay, now that was _awesome_! Though I was feeling much more tired and had to take a few deep breaths and shake it off as Tate and Donna grabbed the guns.

Tate held the last one out to me.

I froze. "Oh, no, not a chance, never in my _life-_"

"First time for everything. Just be careful it doesn't overheat."

He tossed the weapon and I nearly dropped it, cringing and holding it gingerly. I hate guns, they terrify me. Especially actually holding one. God, this was gonna be a mess.

A few twists and turns and we found the others. Marvin's shields were down to two, Max's at one – the two Soldiers had charged and body slammed two groups of mechs, thus greatly depleting their shields, and allowing the rest of them to acquire firearms as well.

Noah, as doing the best with his Biotics, was more precise in his shots and could actually put up a brief barrier. My Biotics were frustrating me with their randomness, so Tate pretty much ordered me to start shooting the things firing at us, which now included drones, mechs, and turrets popping out of the ceiling.

I managed to let off two shots at a drone before I lost my head and threw the pistol on the floor, where I shattered the damn thing with a Biotic stomp. I detest guns and my aim _sucks_ – I didn't hit anywhere near the stupid drone, but nearly shot Max's head off!

Anyway, we were almost to the end (so I figured it didn't really matter), but we were almost out of time; I could see the way out, but a wave of much bigger mechs came at us, and we hit them with everything we had.

Wes, Donna, Marvin, and Lacy jumped, rolled and dodged out of the maze, and the rest of us were about three feet from the exit when the timer hit zero.

The inhibitors dropped the five of us to the floor, writhing in pain as the cuffs activated, electrocuting us. We were trapped in the danger zone, and when Wes spun back to try and help us he was shocked by his cuffs and driven back.

"Stop it, just stop it already!" Lacy yelled in panic and anger.

Abruptly it ended and we lay there, panting and groaning as the VI spoke to us again: "Objective Failure. You must reach the other side of the training room within the time allotted. You have five minutes to recharge. Then you will have ten minutes to complete your objective. Your five minutes begins now."

So we made it through the second time; mainly because we just ran full out and didn't bother destroying everything that came up. The VI told us we had completed our objective – then it informed us that we would be doing it again. And again. And again.

The fourth time through we _had _to use the guns because we were all so worn out. The fifth and last time they recognized that we were completely incapable of completing the maze when me, Lacy, Brandon, and Max collapsed halfway through and just couldn't get back up. The timer stopped and the room, which had altered the maze each time, returned to its original state.

When we were taken back to our room they gave us food, about twice as much as usual for which we were thankful cuz we were starving, and the taste didn't really register I ate it so fast. And we got different types of food, too (so they said, but it all looked the same), 'specialized' for our class types – Biotics: more energy stuff, Techs: boost brain power/alertness, Soldiers: systems fortification.

Lacy said hers actually didn't taste too bad at all, and her water didn't taste funny anymore. Though in Lacy's case, her taste buds were probably just dead.

Miraculously we managed to get a decent amount of sleep, though I woke up extremely sore all over thanks to training. A small 'meal' and it was back to the training room.

They put us through the maze once, and then they switched it up on us: a few low walls for cover were left up, but the rest of the room cleared as a whole bunch of mechs swarmed in from the other side and started firing at us.

We had to dive for cover immediately to wait for our shields to recharge. All we could figure to do was take the mechs out since the VI hadn't bothered to tell us what our new 'objective' was.

And so we did. It was great practice for us all, learning our limits and pushing them, and working together. We all shot at them, but the Techs could hack and overload, us Biotics blasted and threw them around, and the Soldiers took advantage of their physical prowess to take down any mechs that got too close.

Time passed. No more maze runs for us, it was all open combat and such. I focused on my Biotics – still don't like guns, I much preferred my Biotics, but I was getting better at shooting when I had to. I just had to make sure to aim for the mechs nowhere near my comrades and I would hit something.

The room amped things up a bit, turrets firing from the ceiling and sending mechs at us from both sides. Once we thought they were sending the _guards_ in to fight us, but luckily they were just there to 'round us up'.

Marvin tried shooting them anyway and was dropped by the inhibitor, as was Brandon when he tried to follow up with a Throw.

And I noticed something creepy: one of the men that was always with our escort now paid really close attention to me – I know it's the same guy because of the long scratch down the right side of his helmet, top to bottom, and over the opaque faceshield. He never got physically close to me, he kept his distance, but he _watched_ me. It was really creepy. All the guards wore the exact same armor, and were of similar build, but for some reason this one seemed…familiar. Which unnerved me even more when I couldn't figure out why.

I told the others and the guys had made it their duty to keep themselves between me and him, for which I was grateful.

Eventually they split our training into class sessions along with the group training. For me, Brandon, and Noah, it was mostly just to focus on improving our aim and refining our attacks and defense.

The room launched random items out of panels throughout the room and we had to avoid and destroy the projectiles. Noah had the best aim, Brandon the quickest recovery time, and my attacks had more _boom_ than theirs, though I tired the quickest.

But Noah… he was having some problems. Using his Biotics was making him sick, and we couldn't figure out why. He made sure to only use them in the class training and kept to his gun for group sessions.

And speaking of sessions, they hadn't taken us out for any since the training had started. It was nice to not have to worry about it, but now there was no one we could pester to find out what was going on. Except the guards of course, but the one time we tried that, Max got a rifle barrel in his mouth. So we kept the guard-baiting to a minimum.

But what was really cool was getting the chance to practice what we called our 'link'. Making a conscious and organized effort to use our mental abilities, those special feelings, we were able to make steady progress in using them together. It was a bit awkward at first, because we tried to 'open our minds' to each other to see what would happen… yeah, we'd been a little _too_ open and quickly learned to only let through what we _wanted_ to go over the link, but that was limited to imprecise emotional and some memory-image flashes. At first using the link built up a weird pressure in our heads, like developing a stitch after exercising. But like exercising, eventually the muscle got used to the workout. It was also very similar to the head device in that way.

It was even cooler once we reached the point that we could read each other's moods with little to no effort. It was easiest for us girls – the guys were less empathetic and a little more intuition oriented, which meant they were able to coordinate on the training floor better than us.

And oddly enough, since we started utilizing the link so often I haven't had a single one of those freaky Reaper-ish nightmares. Either my mind was done tormenting me with whatever that had been, or, if my impression is correct, whoever was _sending_ them has decided to leave me alone. For now.

We kept trying to figure out how to communicate with actual words, hear other's thoughts sent over the link and control it, but there is such a fine line between sending one intentional thought across and sending ALL your thoughts across, and we hadn't got that worked quite yet.

Frustrating, but a welcome distraction.

Being in that red-lit room for so long also improved our eyesight in a way, our 'night vision', making it easier to see during the training rounds, and our eyes easily adjusted to the different levels of light in the rest of the facility.

Training… it wasn't exactly fun, but it came close at times I guess, mainly the jests and verbal abuse we gave our targets and sometimes each other, heh. But Cerberus would always throw in something to mess us up, pushing us farther than we could go.

More time passed, and I wondered if we were ever going to move on to the real Phase Two.

* * *

_Project Darwin Facility, Training Room 4_

_Room Operator Wellis with Dr.'s Nichal, Thoen, and Rohuthe_

They watched through the heavily reinforced windows – a new wave of mechs was released. Cell 21 reacted smoothly and strategically, easily decimating them in a matter of minutes. Each was performing at an exceptionally high level, though Subject 4 continued to refrain from his Biotics and rely on his weapon; Dr. Saroial would need to examine him again.

One of the scientists, Dr. Thoen, pushed her glasses back up and tapped the side of the right lens. A biological readout of the Subjects appeared on her lenses, visible only to her eyes. She scanned Subject 4 – yes, definitely needed to have him treated again. Subject 9 was holding stable, as were the rest.

She was intrigued by their complete lack of conversation or verbal communication of any kind these past two training rounds. She wanted to know if they had managed to establish a truly operating 'link', as they called it.

Another tap and the readouts cleared; her cold eyes flashed to the Room Operator, who flinched and sat straighter, hands ready over the consoles.

"Release the heavy mech. Let's see how they handle that little surprise," she ordered.

"Yes, Dr. Thoen, ma'am."

"So you think they are ready for Phase Two now?" Dr. Nichal asked, his exasperation clear.

She didn't answer as she watched the panels on the wall slide out and the heavy mech stomped in.

"They are past ready as you well know; there is another aspect we have been observing with this cell," Dr. Rohuthe stated, sounding bored.

The subjects had frozen as they saw the mech and it raised an arm, releasing one of the smaller missiles.

All three Biotics threw up a Barrier, but too many of the subjects were in the open. All but Subjects 1 and 11 lost their shields completely; Subject 1 waved them back to cover as he and the girl stepped forward. They dodged the mech's next shot, Subject 11 using her Biotics to propel herself faster.

The other subjects made range attacks from their cover positions; smoke, bullets, Biotics and Tech shock made it difficult for the observers to see everything as chaos ensued for a moment. Subject 1 attempted to Overload the mech and failed.

Dr. Thoen stepped forward with a frown – where had Subject 11 gone? She snapped her eyes upward as white energy flared.

Subject 11 had somehow reached the highest ledge, her head only feet away from the tall ceiling, and she was down on one knee, eyes fixed on the heavy mech as she balled her fists and punched her hands out to either side. Biotics burst into light over her entire body and formed a globe around her, eyes glowing white and she let out a roar and sprang down at the mech, directing the entire force of her Biotics below her.

The energy slammed into the mech with a horrid crunch and it exploded, throwing her back and she would have been severely injured had Subject 7 not run and jumped to catch her while Subject 8 used Biotics to wrap around them to lessen their impact upon landing. Impressive.

"Take them to have the drug administered. Tomorrow they begin Phase Two."

"Even Subject 9? I thought we were getting her off the drug."

"Give her a placebo – we fixed her once, I don't intend to do so again, and there is no need to let the other Subjects know she is receiving different treatment."

"Yes, ma'am."

Dr. Thoen enabled the readouts as she watched Cell 21 a moment longer; then she turned and left without a word.


	9. Ch9: Phase Two Begins

Disclaimer: All things Mass Effect belong to BioWare!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 9

**A/N: Here's another long one! I write long chapters usually, huh, so I guess I should stop being surprised…**

**Thanks for reading and all the reviews and alerts, they make my day! Love you people! Hope you enjoy the chapter. (**_**italics between ** marks dialogue over the link**_**).**

_***PHASE TWO BEGINS***_

I slammed into Marvin and then we hit the floor; I couldn't breathe very well as he sat me up and the others rushed over. Good Lord, I hadn't expected the heavy mech to blow up – I was just trying to break the darn thing! But WHOA had that been freekin' awesome or what? My biggest _boom_ yet! Though I wouldn't be trying it again anytime soon.

My head was ringing and I ached all over. As I tried to stand I was suddenly completely and totally exhausted; my knees shook and my legs collapsed. Max and Marvin each caught one of my arms and tried to help, but I just couldn't keep my feet under me, they just flopped around.

"You used too much Biotics all at once," Noah explained as I sat on the floor, "I'm sure you'll be alright soon, but you're really going to need to get some food in you-"

"Alright freaks, let's go."

Great, the guards are here already. And my stalker is amongst them. Even better.

The one who had spoken was standing out in front, all cocky like with his big gun, "Come on, line up! We haven't got all day!"

My cellmates had crowded around me and Tate stood in front of me, blocking my view, "Give us a minute, she-"

"I don't care. Get her up and let's go."

The men walked over and started grabbing and pushing the others towards the door; Tate of course tried to stand his ground: "She can't walk."

The jerk guard was radiating danger and violence as he came over, gun raising, oh no…

"Easily solved," came a new voice, really deep and rumbling and one of the guards who was still back with us suddenly reached down and swung me up so that I slightly bounced off his chest and he started walking.

Jerk just laughed and Tate was glaring at the one carrying me as we exited the room.

"Let me take-"

"Your cuffs will be linked, you wouldn't be able to carry her safely."

I closed my eyes and concentrated – it was harder to talk across the link when exhausted and in pain,

*_Just leave it, he's got a point._*

I felt the irritation in his answering thought: *_I know, but I don't like the idea of any of them having a hold on you, especially not _him.*

*_What's so special about this guy?_* My confusion was relayed to him and I opened my eyes to frown at the back of his head as he marched along in front of me – the guard carrying me had taken a rear position.

Tate shook his head *_You hadn't noticed? You must really be tired._* He was partially amused, frustrated and exasperated.

Startled and now curious, I carefully looked up at the guard – and saw the big long scratch. Right, of _course_ it would be my creepy stalker man. What a wonderful way to end my day.

I had dealt with super-creepers and stalker types before (I worked in a major retail store back home, in the southern U.S., they go with the territory), but then I had mainly just avoided them, and I couldn't do that here, and the urge to freak out was growing…

But we all agreed it would be bad for me to start freaking out, so I froze and kept myself still, staring at my knees. I wish he had slung me over his shoulder like they usually do.

It was a long trip back to our room and once there a doctor-type met us to give each of us a shot of the Darwin Drug. Luckily they also gave us food immediately after, so the large amount of drug didn't make us sick and I for one felt a whole lot better.

That training surprise had worn us all out and most of us were good and sore that we didn't do much link practice before huddling together in our now-customary 'dog-pile', as Brandon liked to call it, and went to sleep (not really a pile, that would be weird, but we did lay on each other's shoulders and such).

* * *

We woke the next day expecting to be taken to training soon after as usually happened, but we sat around for hours before the guards showed up. And they weren't alone – Glasses was leading them.

I hadn't seen her since training started, and I'd been hoping to never see her again, but there she was, arrogant bitch-smirk and all. I had actually been able to keep my thoughts relatively pure with a distinct lack of swear words recently, which is more normal for me. But with this… with _her,_ I just couldn't help it. I wished many horrible, painful fates upon her. And I didn't feel the least bit guilty 'bout it neither.

I was pleased to sense similar feelings from the rest of my group, though most strongly from Tate, Max, Noah and Marvin.

"Cell 21 is ready for Phase Two to begin; it is time for them to receive their numbers."

*_Talking about us like we aren't all staring her down, huh?_* Max's voice growled angrily across the link.

*_She's trying to get a rise out of us. Ignore her and stay calm._* Wes told him.

*_I know, I know, don't worry._* Max tried to convince us, but it didn't work. Tate gave him a stern look as we were escorted out.

*_Max, let it go._*

*_I am, I'm fine._*

*_No you're not_* Donna snorted.

*_Oh come on, I know the rest of you wanna beat on her as much as I do!_*

We all winced at his sudden outburst, which made him feel bad.

*_Yes, we all want a shot at the lot of them, but we can't do anything right now. We don't mean get over it, just let it go for now. Otherwise who knows what they'll do to us._* I said, trying to reason with him.

He didn't look happy, but he nodded grudgingly: *_This whole link thing can come in handy, but it can also be good and annoying sometimes._*

* * *

The room they took us to wasn't anything special, smallish with no windows, with a small stool for each of us to sit on. I was glad the stool wasn't real high cuz last time I tried to sit on one I kept falling off and had to have something for my feet, and my balance would've been worse given my hands were cuffed together. They sat us by class, and in the order of our arrival.

We didn't have to wait long before Glasses returned with three others, each of the three carrying a black case. These guys had come to give us our 'numbers', which turned out to be rather large tattoos on both our shoulder/upper arms of our Subject number with a design underneath the number, color coded per each Cell and Class.

The numbers were blocky and spiky, each white in the middle and outlined in our cell color, light blue; the design, a weird v-shape thing, was the color of our class, dark blue for Biotics, deep crimson for Soldiers, and dark green for Techs; under the v-point was a small circle, class color center and cell color outline.

They also labeled each of us in black ink with our full Subject numbers across our right wrists, half an inch under our palms.

Overall a highly unpleasant experience as I had never gotten a tattoo since I hate needles…yet now I was covered in ink and very, very sore. My arms were swollen and red, and when the people were done I held my arms in front of me in a weird way to keep my hair from touching any of it. My hair had been long to start with, and it had grown a few inches so now reached below my waist and was rather wild, too.

I had gritted my teeth through the entire process, as had the others, only fussing in our heads – we were stubborn in that we could handle it, and didn't want to display anything that could be interpreted as 'weakness'.

They let us up when they left and it wasn't long before Glasses was back; her first words were: "You will keep silent from here on, and you will listen and pay attention or the inhibitors _will_ be activated."

We glared, but our Cell consensus was to keep quiet – if one of us snarked off, she'd probably activate all the inhibitors then and there. She smirked again, making me want to punch her.

"Good. Follow me."

She had us line up single file by number so I was last as we were led down a bright corridor and Glasses kept talking, "I suppose congratulations are in order for surviving this far and doing so well in training. In the next room you will be introduced to Phase Two, where the real fun begins."

I wasn't the only one who got a chill up their spine at her tone as she opened the huge doors. So we'd finally reached the arena Marvin had heard about. The arena itself was probably half the size of the training room and more like the pit of a gladiator coliseum, with rows of stadium-like above and on either side, enough to seat a couple hundred people. And nearly every seat was occupied by Project Darwin Subjects in their white outfits. The rest had scientists or doctors, but…

I'd never really added it up before. We're Cell 21, all cells have nine members, and 21 x 9 equals… one hundred eighty nine people! And that doesn't include all the people who had died already! Why hadn't I thought about that before? Oh my God, these monsters had killed so many people, and were torturing and experimenting on so many more…

I felt tears pricking my eyes as the intense anger and sadness of the injustice of it all washed over me. We were still in a line and Wes took a quick step back to give my wrist a squeeze.

The others were all feeling it too; that made it easier to handle and I tightened my throat and my expression. I refused to let Glasses see me cry.

She had us sit in one of the lower rows, close to the arena; she wanted us to have a good view.

"The Cell rounds for Phase Two are about to begin. Watch and enjoy. I will." Her smarmy arrogance grated on my nerves. But everything was driven from my mind a moment later as the VI's voice echoed throughout the coliseum as it announced, "Phase Two Cell Rounds will now begin for Cell 11, Cell 13, Cell 16, Cell 17, Cell 20, and Cell 21."

Cell vs. Cell… can't say I was surprised, this is Cerberus after all, and I remembered what they had done to Jack and the other kids on Pragia. Dangit I wish I had some sense of _when_ I had arrived here!

The doors on each side of the arena slid into the wall and the cells walked out. Some looked wary, others determined, but most looked terrified.

"Begin Round One."

A horribly loud buzzer made me flinch and Cells 16 and 17 dropped into tense defensive stances, watching each other. There were no weapons that I could see, so I guess this is where they really tested our Project abilities.

Nobody was moving – then they all let out shouts and roars and sprang at each other.

I clamped a hand over my mouth as I watched, horrified. It was a massive free-for-all brawl in that pit, Biotics exploding everywhere, Techs zapping and electrocuting people, Soldiers beating and breaking anyone they could get their hands on. You could barely tell which subject belonged to which cell, the way they were moving.

Bodies hit the floor one after another until the last Tech of 16 let out a bubble of electricity that took down the last two standing from 17, and drained the Tech so badly that he collapsed. The buzzer sounded with two members of Cell 16 still standing, two Soldiers.

The VI announced, "Cell 16 takes Round One." There was no cheering or anything, and the few subjects who tried to talk to one another got a quick hit from their inhibitors. "Please clear the arena and prepare for Round Two."

Guards entered the bloodied pit to remove those who were unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and the cells divided as they exited into whatever waiting room was behind the doors. Nobody bothered to clean up the blood from the arena.

My stomach was reeling and I imagine my expression was the same as my cellmates', dread and disgust.

Round Two, Cell 11 vs. Cell 13, lasted longer than the first and this time I focused on the Biotic combatants. 11's Biotics were more efficient than 13's, who mostly just threw the energy around rather than focusing it. One of 11's Biotics caught my attention specifically: I couldn't be sure from the chaos, but given the cell color (red), I was pretty sure Subject 9 was my female friend from the Ezo Chamber. Her springy black curls were longer and bounced wildly as she darted around.

I scanned the rest of the arena, picking out 13's and…yes! There he was, our other friend, the guy in black! Did they recognize – yeah they did, I could tell they were deliberately avoiding one another even amidst the chaos. Well, nice to know they were still alive. There had probably been familiar faces in 16 and 17, I just hadn't been looking.

Hmm… six cells in this part of Phase Two, eight in the Ezo Chamber, only seven had survived… either one was already ahead of us in Phase Two or not yet done with training. Or dead, true, but I preferred my other possibilities.

Cell 13 ended up taking the round when it was one-on-one between two Soldiers –their fight was ugly, worse than the rest of it. As the cells exited, most still conscious at least, our guards motioned for us to get up. Now it was our turn.

Waiting for those big doors to open was both too long and much too short. My heart was pounding and my insides seemed to disappear as we stepped into the pit. The silence was eerie and I only dimly heard the VI's announcement.

This would be a really bad time to pass out. Cell 20 was staring us down, clearly determined to take us out. Ugh. I took a deep breath and forced myself to set the fear aside, to focus.

The buzzer grated my already frayed nerves and Cell 20 didn't even hesitate. They surged forward, immediately putting us on the defensive, splitting us apart. I admit, I panicked, covering my head with my arms and running out of the way of a Soldier barreling towards me. The gut literally bounced off the wall and came at me again, forcing me to hurriedly put up a wall of Biotics to push him away.

I jerked and yelled as I was hit with a sharp jolt of electricity and I swung around to see Tate and a 20 Tech locked together in a kind of electricity face-off, sparks flying and twisting. No time to think as a girl Soldier came running at them; I punched the back of her shoulder but she didn't flinch, just spun to face me instead so I tried Throwing her with little success – a 20 Biotic met my Throw with one of his own and we were all blasted back.

*_Meg! Throw a blast at his feet, at his feet! Knock him down!_* Marvin's voice commanded across the link, and I reacted instinctively, doing as I was told and the Biotic tripped, and Marvin was suddenly there, slamming him harder into the floor with a kick to his back.

Marvin continued to bark commands over the link, telling each of us what to do: *_Defend as well as attack! Tate, stop and drop to confuse him! Brandon, get him from behind! – Megan, Pull her and toss her as high as you can and release her! – Donna, hit him in the kidneys, Wes follow up with a shock – Lacy, stop, let Noah get her!_*

He managed to instruct us even as he darted around the ring, the best fighter of us all thanks to his Alliance training. He pushed hard to get a firm link established, letting us draw on his strength and determination. We were able to regroup and organize and in less than a minute Marvin was able to knock out the last 20, Subject 2, another Soldier.

We were all breathing hard and beat up, and a few had hit the ground and stayed there – Lacy had collapsed, Noah was having a severe coughing fit, and Brandon had had his shoulder yanked out of place.

The buzzer went off and the VI announced us as 'taking the round' while we were trying to help our cellmates into the waiting area.

Lacy seemed like she should be okay with rest, she was just really weak and shaky, and Brandon swore as Donna fixed his shoulder but was able to walk out on his own. Noah was not okay – he couldn't regain control of his legs or arms and couldn't catch his breath. I was kneeling next to him in the waiting area, trying to calm him down and keep him upright when Dr. Saroial came in with a few guards and a stretcher.

Lacy yelled at the guards as they loaded her cousin onto the stretcher and left, but she was too weak to do anything and Glasses activated our inhibitors as she strutted in to talk to the doctor. She left them on just enough to incapacitate us, but not strong enough to really hurt.

Before being brought here I wouldn't have been able to hear their whispered conversation – but now I could: "We saw others like this, I told you those who have been pre-exposed run a higher risk of system failure-"

"It doesn't matter, just get him stabilized and ready to go."

"'Ready to go'? He can't go through that again, much less the one-on-one matches later, and neither should Subject 6 of Cell 16-"

"If they cannot be of use in my studies, then I have no need of them. You have two options: fix them up, or terminate them so I can study their remains."

Enraged, I made sure to keep that statement out of the link and I tried to crawl forward; Doc's face was sheet white and he was trying to blank his expression, but it wasn't working. At least he was bothered by the idea of just killing people. But no way in hell was going to just lay there and let her talk so callously about my friend's life!

With a snarl I managed to get to my feet – I could feel the surprise and curiosity from the others – and Glasses looked completely shocked as I rushed her. I tackled the witch, making her squawk and we hit the floor, her glasses flying off her face and skidding into the waiting room.

I got one good punch in before a guard hauled me off her and hit me twice in the face, sufficiently dazing me and another guard grabbed me and dumped me at his feet, and through my ringing ears it sounded like he was yelling at the first one.

Glasses' hair was a mess and her livid face was bright red as she got to her feet, glaring at me evilly, "You will regret that you little bitch, I promise you. Doctor, where are my glasses?"

Doc was still gaping at the both of us, but clamped his mouth shut at her snarled question and darted into the waiting area; I swiveled my head to watch him. He stopped in front of Max and just stood there for a moment – then he slowly bent down and retrieved the shattered and twisted frames, glass shards glittering on the floor.

Head down, he slowly walked back to her and held them out; I didn't know it was possible, but she looked even more furious than before. Wordlessly she took the broken glasses, glared at each of us in turn, and stalked away. Doc scratched the back of his neck and told the guards to take us back to our room instead of back to the stadium, and he left as well, hopefully to go treat Noah.

The inhibitors had turned off, so we were able to follow the guards back to our room, though both Lacy and I had to be carried – I was still dizzy and achy, and my hand hurt especially from the two punches I had thrown. Turns out it was my stalker who had actually kinda rescued me from the guard intent on punching my face in. Weird.

Max is the one who managed to get a smile out of me on our way back: *_Dang, girl – who was it telling me off for wanting to have a go at her earlier?_* When I looked back to frown at him he just smirked.

Back in the room it was tense – we didn't know what was going on with Noah, and when asked I refused to give them details as to why I had gone off on Glasses. The only reason they didn't push was because I gave a small shake of my head when Lacy wasn't looking so she wouldn't see the look I shot in her direction. They reluctantly nodded and Max took the conversation in a different direction:

"Well whatever the reason, that was awesome! I would've liked a shot at her, but it was nice to be able to smash her stupid little glasses to bits."

"Wait, you did that? It wasn't just them going flying?" I laughed.

"Nah, that was all me," he grinned.

"Sweet. Though I worry over what she will do later, cuz I know she's not gonna let me get away with that. I should've kept myself in check." I was mainly worried over what she would do to the rest of my cell, too, to punish both me and them.

"No, somebody needed to knock her down a peg; that woman is insane. She actually enjoyed watching those fights." Lacy said quietly, shuddering.

I frowned and was glad that Brandon was having her lean on his shoulder – she still looked pretty bad.

"Are you going to be okay? What did you get hit with?" I asked.

Lacy closed her eyes and swallowed, laying her chin on her chest, "I didn't get hit with anything, I… I can't do it, I don't know, I can't handle that place. I got so tired so fast, and I couldn't _do_ anything, I couldn't produce any energy to help, and Noah had to protect me, and had to use his Biotics more which is what made him so sick-"

"Stop, Lacy, it's not your fault, none of this is your fault, it's theirs," Tate interrupted, which was good because Lacy was crying and needed calming. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"You don't understand, I can't do it! I don't know why, but I can't fight, I can't generate my own electricity fields like you guys can! And just doing as little as I did nearly made me pass out,what if I hadn't stopped? You know I had issues even in training and had to rely mostly on my gun, just like Noah! Worse than Noah, at least he didn't 'run out of juice' or something. There's something wrong with me, and I'm scared of going back to that arena. And I want Noah back, I'm scared, I'm just scared."

Brandon hugged her and the rest of us moved in closer, Donna wrapping around her opposite Brandon and I held her hand.

"I'm sorry I'm blubbering, whining like this is just pathetic-" she started but Wes interrupted.

"It's not pathetic, it's completely understandable."

*_Guys, I have an idea_* Tate's sudden switch to the link took us by surprise but we looked at him and didn't say anything out loud to give suspicion to whoever kept surveillance on us.

*_What kind of an idea?_* Marvin asked.

*_Well we thought getting in to Phase Two would give us more opportunity, right? I think it has. They're not curtailing our abilities anymore and you all saw that the female scientist manually controlled the inhibitors?_*

We cautiously agreed, both hopeful and afraid of where he was going with this…

*_As long as I have access to any kind of terminal that links with this facility's systems, I can activate my virus again._*

*_What? But I thought you said it didn't work last time!_* Brandon practically shouted.

*_It didn't work the way I wanted it too, no, but it did shut their security off for a while, and the code should still be in the network. I know they weren't able to find and destroy all of it. And who knows, maybe someone got the signal and are investigating as we speak, but my point is that it will work long enough for us to cause plenty of mayhem._*

*_To what end?_*

*_Lacy, you can't handle Phase Two and Noah can't use his Biotics right? But I know how they think, and if Phase Two itself doesn't kill you, they will once you prove you have outlived your usefulness._* Yeah he was right about that…

*_If we can override security long enough, and cause enough of a distraction, we should have just enough time to get both you and Noah out of here._*

* * *

**A/N: BTW I wanted to mention another SI fanfic written by my sister FeZeTh13! We started out collaborating on a story but had so many different ideas that we decided to write seperate ones, so there will be some similarities but the overall storylines are totally different :) Her first chapter went up yesterday if you want to check it out, it's gonna be awesome!**


	10. Ch10: Plan Of Action

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 10

* * *

**A/N: I finally got it posted! I had to rewrite most of the chapter, sorry! But I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for reading! And thanks for all the reviews, they make my day :)**

***PLAN OF ACTION***

Lacy's eyes widened in surprise and excitement at Tate's suggestion, but before any of us could say anything the door opened and Noah was shoved in. Lacy popped up and helped him over to sit against the wall with the rest of us.

"You alright man?" Brandon asked anxiously.

Noah glanced at Lacy – I could tell he wanted to reassure her, but it's not like he would get away with lying. "I'm not really sure. The doctor said he fixed me up as best he could, but…"

"What is it that's wrong with you?" Donna asked as she leaned forward, "I mean, Megan and Brandon aren't having any problems with their Biotics, so why are you different?"

"My pre-exposure, I would guess. It's the only thing different about the three of us. And according to the doctor, others have had the same difficulty before, so he wasn't too surprised, just – concerned."

Wes seemed hesitant as he asked, "What happened to the others?"

Noah hesitated again, and spoke slowly, "He said that some of those who had strong reactions similar to mine reacted well to the same treatment he gave."

He was trying to not make it sound as bad as it probably was, and unfortunately, we could all tell he was choosing his words carefully. Marvin was the only one willing to call him on it, "Noah, please don't do that, you're making my nerves itch."

"Wha-? Oh. Right…" he grimaced, "Well, okay, too many die in and before the Arena so he says he can't know for sure, but… the outlook is not good. My body is all messed up from the drugs, and their E-zo, and all the treatments… it's happening more slowly in me than in others, but basically my body is deteriorating, shutting down. The treatments he has put me on may keep me stabilized, but it won't fix the damage already done, and he made no guarantees."

"But – but they've got so much medical stuff here, and they've been doing this for God-only-knows how long, surely there's something more they can do!" I stuttered in protest. This could not be happening, we might have a chance to try and get them out, and they could work from the outside to get the rest of us out later! He had to be okay! Maybe if we…

I tapped my right temple to give them a head's-up before I started on the link: *_Okay, I know that sounds really bad, but if you were totally hopeless they wouldn't have bothered giving you any treatments – they would have just killed you so they could study your remains. That's what I heard Doc and Glasses talking about, and it was her suggesting that they just off him that made me snap on her._*

Noah gaped at me *_Wait, you did what?_*

Oh right, he hadn't seen that… my face burned slightly *_I, uh, tackled her, sorta. And Max broke her glasses when they flew off. So she is mega-pissed and swearing revenge or whatever…_*

*_Ha! Wish I could've seen that!*_

*_Yeah, anyway, I was mainly trying to think positive here. Or at least, not quite so gloomy. Did you hear anything Tate said before you came in?*_

_*Well, yeah, that was kinda why I didn't want to make my condition sound worse or better than it probably is – if we do try an escape, I need to be realistic, but I know that if I go into it with a negative outlook I may as well not try at all, because fearing failure can cause failure.*_

*_Dude, that was deep. You'd make a great philosopher or something_* Brandon actually did look impressed, so Noah just made a face at him.

*_And y'know, once we get out we can take you to a real doctor who actually has an interest in helping you get better rather than playing around with you!_* Lacy broke in, sounding excited.

*_Yeah… but there really may not be anything that can be done - *_

_*But nuthin', it's happening, and as soon as possible. No doubt we're going out again tomorrow, or maybe sooner, and Tate can do his thing then.* _Max declared.

*_Yes I can, but I can't tell you how quick the virus will take effect._* Tate cautioned, sounding thoughtful too.

*_How will you know when it's ready?_* Wes asked.

*_It will be keyed to my cuff, so once it's online it will alert me but won't actually do anything until I tell it to._*

*_Good, that gives us time to come up with a real plan!_*

"Uh, I guess I never really thought about this before, but what does your cuff have to do with anything? Like, how does that kind of stuff work?" Donna asked.

"Yeah, I see you guys do the zapping and the hacking stuff, but I don't get _how _you do it," Brandon added.

So I guess we're back to regular talking again, then… The three Techs looked at each other and shrugged.

"Our cuffs have computer chips in them, we think, that make them similar to omni-tools. Our implants and treatments coupled with that infernal head device allow us to access its functions both physically and mentally," Tate answered first.

"We've got eye implants that allow us to read and analyze the data," Lacy followed up.

"And we have more cybernetics than Soldiers and Biotics, and that along with everything else, grants us the ability to manipulate the EM fields around us," Wes finished.

"That's it in a nutshell, as far as we can understand. We really don't know exactly how it all works," Tate clarified.

Noah leaned forward, "So you guys don't have as much full genetic alterations as we do?"

"I suppose not, unless they find a way to incorporate synthetic material into organic DNA, which is impossible," Wes answered.

I couldn't help but smile at that as the conversation switched back to the link so we could discuss the escape plan again.

Honestly, we didn't have much to go on outside of a general 'this is how it should work' thing. We wouldn't have any real details on how we could get this done until Tate had access to the system, so for now our basic idea was for him to reactivate the virus, wait for it to infiltrate they system, and then we head out and beat the crap out of anyone who gets in our way.

Tate will be keeping an eye on the virus activity and status while Wes brought up blueprints so we could move quickly to the closest shuttle bay or whatever kind of transportation was around. Unfortunately once they got out of the station, they were gonna have to run like mad and hope they could get somewhere safe, fast.

Max asked why we couldn't go ahead and do a full-scale breakout, and Tate explained that though he could use the virus again, it was still defective and would only last for a limited time and the rest of us would have to provide sufficient distraction to keep Noah and Lacy from being caught or slowed down.

They returned for us after just two hours passed. My heart jumped in my throat when the door swished open and everyone's anxiety level skyrocketed. And we weren't just nervous about the virus – I was praying Noah wouldn't get put back in the Arena. If he crashed again so soon… I don't know if they would bother with any more treatments in such a short amount of time. Especially after what had happened with Glasses.

As we walked we made sure to look around, take in all the hallways and doors that we passed, the numbers on the walls. Any detail would be helpful. Good thing they weren't knocking us unconscious anymore.

We didn't see Glasses as we were led into the stadium, which I counted as a blessing. The guards stood closer and there were more of them than before, which was more of a curse.

Ugh, my palms were sweaty and I was twitching nervously as only two people walked into the pit. They were doing one-on-one now. Probably because there were too many wounded from the cell rounds. That could bode well for Noah. Good. Yeesh, even my thoughts were babbly now. Calm down girl, gotta focus…

The fight below was interesting, to say the least. Tech vs. Tech, and it was more than just wailing on each other: each Tech had a mech on their side, and it seemed the idea was for them to hack the other's mech and make it incapacitate their opponent. Or something like that, cuz that's what they did, but the Subject 3 Tech (I wasn't paying attention when they announced what cells they were from) had better control over the other mech and was able to get the other in a headlock/chokehold. It was obvious S3 was the victor, but the buzzer didn't go off for another thirty seconds… I learned the reason for that the next round.

Soldier vs. Soldier: it really was an all-out beat down. And after one had the other down on the floor, the second clearly defeated, the buzzer didn't go off to stop the victor, Subject 5 of Cell 18, from then grabbing the downed man's head and smashing it into the floor, once, twice, three times before stepping back and spitting on the prone body.

My mind went blank with shock and horror at the sight of the blood and the man on the ground wasn't moving. The buzzer finally went off. They had given him enough time to do what he wanted before signaling the end of the match. They didn't care that he had probably just killed his opponent. They had wanted to see what he could do. And what he would do. This had _nothing_ to do with humanity's evolution or genetic advancement; this was purely for the enjoyment of the sick, psychotic freaks running this facility.

I dimly heard shouts and screaming from other subjects, but the most prominent emotion wasn't even my own – sick, horrified disbelief and recognition emanated from Marvin as he leaned over the metal rail our hands were cuffed to. His eyes were huge, his mouth slightly open as he stared at the Soldier strutting around the Arena.

*_Marvin, who is that guy?_* Brandon asked, even his link voice shaking.

Breathing heavily, eyes still fixed on the man as he was led out, Marvin answered *_Lieutenant Hashton. One of my squad mates. He – he was on the vessel when we were attacked, I didn't know if any others had… survived, had been brought here. But I don't understand… why would he do that?_*

He sounded so sickened and shocked; I didn't know what to do. Tate pressed his forehead onto the railing, his face pale and mouth set in a thin line.

*_Everything they've done, all they put us through… he's gone mad, Marvin. That's the only thing I can think of. I'm sorry.* _Tate said in a quiet, solemn tone.

*_Yeah… yeah, me too._* Marvin answered. We had to watch as the beaten Soldier, Subject 8 of Cell 6, was taken out on a stretcher. I leaned way over and squinted my eyes, trying to see whether or not he was breathing… I think he was. Barely. I suppose if he had just been dead they wouldn't have bothered to be careful when removing him.

*_So they just… let them do that? That doesn't make any sense!_* Donna exclaimed.

*_And who knows how many others here are like him, and like the others in Cell 20 – they were more than happy to do whatever it took to win, remember? What're we supposed to do if we go up against someone like that?_* Noah asked, appalled.

*_Knock them out and leave'em on the floor. Like the first match we saw; we won't do the same thing they do. We're better than that, we won't let these people turn us into animals._* Wes growled angrily.

*_And you won't be going in there, Noah, not if we have anything to say about it. Even if we don't have anything to say about it. And neither will Lacy. This – this just proves that we're going to have to move fast when we get the chance. We can't risk being too careful._* Tate replied sternly.

*_So in a really messed up way it would be good if you got chosen to face off with someone, huh?_* Max said hesitantly. *_Then you'd have access to a terminal either before or after._*

*_Yeah, but would they be watching him too closely? It won't do any good if he gets caught._* Lacy put in, trying to keep them from doing anything unnecessarily rash.

*_I know, I'll be careful if that happens, but -_* Tate was interrupted by a guard stepping closer and pressing a few panels on the end of our row. My cuffs disengaged from the rail, as did Tate's and Marvin's. Huh… so what's going on now?

"Follow us," the guard ordered, a slight accent to his voice.

Confused, the three of us slowly got up and followed, our cellmates' eyes wide, my nerves prickling as guards surrounded us, taking us down into the waiting room. This was different… and unexpected. Though I understood it after a minute: a Tech, a Soldier, and a Biotic, heading into the Arena.

At least they chose Tate – Marvin and I could provide a distraction if needed while he hacked a terminal or whatever he could get to. We looked around the room and I saw Tate staring at a small panel next to the inner door, and then we both quickly looked away as the guards came up to unlink our cuffs to free our hands for the fight. Then they practically shoved us in as the door opened – they had mechs for this round too - and the VI announced us.

"Subjects 1, 7, and 11 of Cell 21 versus Subjects 4, 9, and 10 of Cell 11."

Oh God, not her, why was I the Biotic chosen to go against her? I could tell from her expression that she was feeling similarly to me, and Tate and Marvin were casting me odd looks – I hadn't told them who she was last time, so they couldn't figure out why the both of us were upset, and neither could her two buddies.

*_Focus Meg, we need to get this over with_.* Tate's voice cut through my thoughts and I glanced over at him and then up to where the others were waiting anxiously. Lacy was especially pale and Noah looked so tired… I gave Tate a firm nod and directed my gaze back to our opponents.

Subject 9 had looked up at the stands when I did and her Soldier, Subject 4, had to grab her shoulder to get her attention. Our eyes met again; I mouthed 'I'm sorry' as the buzzer went off and per Marvin's idea I immediately launched a wave of energy at them.

S9 managed a quick barrier so they didn't get hit with the full force of it, but Tate was already hacking their mech and Marvin was charging forward. Their Tech tried electrocuting Marvin, but he ducked and hit him with a chop to his gut and kicked him in the face when he hunched over in pain, sufficiently knocking him out.

Well, we were making quick work of it: Tate had the mech tromping around after the Soldier, stomping and punching him into a corner so he couldn't use his speed to any advantage. I kept a constant barrage of Biotics on S9, keeping her off-balance and wearing down the barriers she kept putting up. We hit them so hard they never got much of a chance to retaliate.

The Tech was down, Tate soon had the Soldier pinned and darted over to give him a quick shock to knock him out, and the Biotic…I had thought she would take longer cuz she had good recovery time and I hadn't landed any real solid hits on her person, but right after the Soldier went down, my next Biotic punch seemed to go right through her Barrier and tossed her across the pit, where she stayed, not moving as she lay on the ground.

…Victory?

The three of us slowly and deliberately, not touching the others, walked backwards to our original position, and waited. The buzzer didn't go off for another minute. So in the minute, the three of us made a quick plan on how to cause a sufficient distraction and we were ready when we walked back into the waiting room.

Tate's eyes snapped to the lock on the inner door and he tapped his left cuff, giving a slight nod. Alrighty, now we just had to get the guards' attention away from him.

Luckily there were only two actually in the room with us. Easy-peesy.

"You know," I mock-whisper to Marvin, "these guard-dudes like to act like they're all-that, but they're not. I mean, think about it, they don't really _do anything._ Just tote their big guns around and bark at us. And what do they need such big guns for anyway?"

Marvin snorted, "They have to compensate for the fact that they're nothing more than glorified hall monitors. Big guns make them think they're still macho men."

"Shut up the both of you!" one guard snarled. Ah, it's working. Hehehehehehehe…

I made a show of leaning around Marvin to peer at the guy, and still leaning, I looked up at Marvin again, "Oh dear, I think he heard us."

"Hmm, seems rather sensitive doesn't he?" he remarked slyly.

"And apparently he feels the need to wave around an extra-large gun."

"Biggest gun I've seen so far. And you know, the bigger the gun…"

"Poor thing."

The guard took a threatening step towards us, "Ha! I carry this _specialized _assault rifle so that I can shoot annoying little labrats who can't keep their mouths shut! I don't need to compensate for anything."

The other guard was just shaking his head at the guy, but was watching us and not Tate, so it was working so far.

I tap a finger against my chin, "Methinks he doth protest too much. What say you?"

"Oh definitely-"

Guard 1 swore and swung his rifle up to aim at us and I had a moment of 'Oh crap!' before Guard 2 stepper forward and warned, "You can't shoot them!"

Marvin let out a bark of laughter, "HA! You see? Hall monitors can't even use their little toys! What a bunch of -"

Guard 1 took a swing, trying to hit Marvin in the face with his gun, but Marvin ducked and then did this thing where he hopped up and kicked both feet out, catching him in the chest and knocking him to the floor. Then Marvin jumped on him, pinning him as he started slamming the heels of his hands against the guy's helmet.

Guard 2 yelled 'Hey!' and started forward to pull Marvin off but I jumped on him with a snarling hiss like some crazy person and we tumbled to the ground, the guard's arm smacking Marvin's shoulder and it was about to turn into an all-out brawl when the outer door opened and my stalker guard came in. We all froze.

"What the -?" he exclaimed and I panicked – from there he could see Tate, got to get his attention now!

Without even thinking I blurted out, "Oh look! Creeper's come to join us!"

Dead silence. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I was like 'Agh!' and had to use great willpower to keep my face from going red. 'Creeper' turned his head to face me fully as I scrambled up and Marvin stood and backed away, him glaring at the two and me staring at Creeper with a blank, hopefully innocent looking face.

I could almost feel the guy raise an eyebrow as he asked, "Creeper? And just how am I a creeper?" And he crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the doorway. Oh good, he was keeping his face on me; but he seemed almost like he was… playing along or something. Interpreting the readings I can now get from 'outsiders' was hard.

"You're a stalker – you are therefore, by default, a creeper."

*_Come on Tate! Aren't you done yet?_* Marvin asked impatiently.

*_I just located the remnant! Activating now, just buy me a few more seconds…_*

"I'm a stalker? How could you know it's me specifically?"

"You're always watching me and hanging around and being creepy: thus the title 'Creeper'. And I know it's you cuz you've got that scar on your helmet."

Guard 1 now joined in, "You lookin' to get some with the labrats, huh?"

Oh… oh my God, this just went in a seriously horrible and unexpected direction! Creeper snorted, "Hardly – all the chicks here are skinny little twigs that need some time in the sun."

I was frozen and Marvin was watching them carefully, slowly adopting a protective posture next to me. Now Guard 2 spoke up, "Oh I dunno, this one's got some nice curves goin' on with those hips and her a-"

"Keep your eyes to yourself, freaks!" Marvin snapped as he stepped between me and the other two guards so they couldn't see me. Okay, now I was seriously getting freaked out.

Creeper just shook his head, "A girl's gotta have a decent rack to peak my interest."

"Good point," Guard 1 laughed. My face was beginning to get red at the way they were talking.

*_Done!_* Tate announced and Marvin immediately turned his head to holler in irritation:

"Oi! Jump into this already, you're lack of involvement is getting annoying!"

"I wasn't not getting involved," Tate said as he walked forward to join us, "I was watching."

Guard 1 laughed again, "And I suppose you were just going to watch if we decided to have a closer examination of your little friend there?"

"Of course not – that's what I was watching for."

"Please, like you losers could actually do any real damage. She's easy prey, so maybe I should-"

Tate leveled an intense stare on him, "Go ahead. I dare you."

Oooooooohhhh cool! His dangerously calm tone was way more intimidating than anything the guards had pulled so far, especially with the electricity crackling around his hands. Feeling supremely smug, I adopted a cocky stance, as did Marvin, and I flashed my Biotics over my arms.

We were all prepared for a stare-down stand-off, but Creeper sighed and told us all to back down so they could take us back into the stadium – there were a few more matches yet to be fought.

Marvin wanted to take one more hit at them, but Tate warned him not to push it: *_They'll get a taste of what we can really do soon enough._*

* * *

The next three matches were nearly as bad as the first two: one more one-on-one, Biotics, and two more sets of three vs. three. But thankfully nothing as brutal as the Soldier match. I don't think anybody died, but a few sustained serious injuries that were sure to keep them inactive for at least a little while.

The only positive was replaying my and Marvin's guard-baiting: everyone got a kick out of it, though we left out the sexual harassment bit.

* * *

Back at the room we waited. Tate had no idea how long it would take for the virus to fully infiltrate the system. We took turns pacing, trying to not make it look like we were waiting for something to happen.

But we had another reason to be nervous: Noah was worse. Pale, sweating, and shaky, he tried to tell us he was okay, but we knew better.

We had to shut down the link for a while when tensions ran too high and we started biting each other's heads off. None of us were able to sleep after we ate, but we pretended to try. The hours passed slowly and our anticipation grew.

Then a light started blinking on Tate's wrist. We all froze as he slapped a hand over his cuff to cover the light and a tight smile spread across his face.

*_We ready?_*

*_Hell yeah! Let's get this done!_* Max answered enthusiastically.

*_Alright. Proceeding to override security systems; I have access. Wes, bring up the schematics now._*

Wes danced his fingers across the surface of his cuff. *_Facility details accessed. Facility is – well, it's in orbit. No details where. Blueprints show nearest shuttle bay, one of three, is one level up, above the training rooms._*

*_Good. Preparing to unlock doors and shut off cameras – now._*

His cuff blinked and let out a series of beeps. The door swished open.

Heart pounding, I met the others just next to the door. This was completely insane and utterly terrifying. And unbelievably exciting.

Tate, who had always been our undeclared leader, turned to the rest of us.

"Let's do this."


	11. Ch11: Riot

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all of Mass Effect

MEFF: PROJECT DARWIN Chapter 11

* * *

**A/N: Longest chapter EVER, hopefully no more like it, but no _way_ was I splitting this up. Nope.**

****This would've been up HOURS ago if my internet would just work properly! There is something wrong with either my or my internet in general, cuz it just would not work! So I hope there is nothing wrong here. But I'm posting it anyway.****

**Extra POV in chapter.**

_***RIOT***_

We moved quickly and quietly thanks to our bare feet. I was so on edge that I stayed on my tiptoes as we snuck down the hall – no guards in sight – and paused before Wes directed us to take a right and then a left to head for the stairs.

Still no guards – their confidence that they didn't have anything to worry about was clear. Good for us Cerberus and Glasses are so arrogant.

We reached the foot of the stairs. Tate was fussing with his cuff and I stepped up next to him, "What is it?"

"I'm accessing the cameras – I'll only be able to do it once, and I want to see what's going on before we go any further." His eyes seemed to glaze over and rapidly moved side to side as if he were speed-reading a book. He frowned, "Okay, the guards are doing patrols. They haven't reached this area yet, but they will soon. Multiple squads in the shuttle bay area."

He blinked and looked back up at us, "I guess this is where we split up. Donna, Marvin, Brandon and I will hold here until the guards show up – we don't want to tip them off until we have to."

"Is there a way for you to start sealing off areas so they can't reach us?" Donna asked.

"No, the virus shuts down most of the security systems completely. All I can do now is access some info from the computers and some of the lock systems. I wish I could, but we need to focus: Wes, Max, Meg – you three have to get Lacy and Noah to the shuttles."

"Got it. Come on guys," Wes said, taking the lead as we ran up the stairs. Max and I took the rear positions to keep Noah and Lacy in the middle where they would be better protected.

Noah was breathing hard by the top of the stairs so Lacy was keeping a hand on the back of his shoulder, just in case. I wished we could stop to let him sit for a minute, but we just didn't have the time. Wes took us down a long corridor.

We were doing well for a few minutes. Then all hell broke loose.

First we felt alarm from Tate's group, followed by the distant sound of gunshots and shouting. I guess _s_omebod_y_ _had _been paying attention to the security cameras and didn't appreciate the virus' blackout.

We all felt a moment's panic and Lacy half-turned with a cry as if to go back, but Max grabbed her shirt at the shoulder and pushed her forward as we broke into a run.

*_I know you want to help, but it's the two of you we need to get out!_*

*_They'll be okay Lacy, they can take care of themselves._* I added to try and reassure her a little better. Not sure how well it worked, given all our anxiety levels had shot up and weren't going down.

Wes cried out a warning as a door ahead of us opened and three guards ran out shooting. I threw out a barrier and followed up with a wave of energy that knocked them off-balance, allowing Max to sprint forward and take care of two while Wes shocked the other.

When I dropped my barrier I noticed that it seemed to linger a moment longer than it should have… I rounded in Noah with a frustrated huff,

"What the heck are you doing?"

"I'm trying to help!"

"While we appreciate it, using your Biotics is only going to aggravate your condition! You don't need to get any worse, okay?"

"Well it's not like I'm going to get any better!"

"Yes you will once we get you outta here! If you wanna help, grab a gun and shoot. But shut up and run!" Max yelled back as two more squads, one from the left and one behind, came into view.

"We have to go left to get to the hangar! Max!" Wes called.

"I'm on it!" Max charged the oncoming guards and I helped amplify his sweeping jump-kick with Biotics.

Noah grabbed one of the pistols that had clattered to the floor and got off a few shots at the ones coming up behind us. Lacy grabbed his other hand and pulled him along, while I pushed him from behind. It was a good thing we both had our hands on him because a few seconds later he coughed and staggered. We slung his arm over Lacy's shoulders and she wrapped an arm around his waist.

Wes and Max had to drop back and stay closer since we couldn't move as fast.

"How much farther Wes?" I yelled ahead as we took cover at the end of a hallway where there were at least six guards shooting at us.

"The door that leads to that part of the facility is only a few halls down, but the hangar is a bit beyond that and past a high security door that I don't think Tate's virus affected! It's on a separate OS or something!"

"Well I can handle a damned door, Wes! It shouldn't be a problem!" Lacy responded.

"That's not gonna matter if we keep running into these idiots! We're running out of time!" Max barked in frustration.

At that exact moment, three of the doors along the guard-infested hall swished open, as did one just behind us. There was a confused ceasefire as we and the guards stared at the stunned and equally confused Cells who were peering out of the rooms.

Then Max pumped his fists in the air and yelled "RIOT!" as loud as he could.

We heard the guards swear as the subjects swarmed out and attacked with reckless and exuberant abandon.

"Ha! Tate did it!" Max shouted as he grinned and we raced forward, Noah having recovered enough to keep up on his own.

I wished there was a way to uphold a decent link in this chaos, but at least I hadn't felt anything bad from Tate's group; they should be okay, especially if he was able to pull this off.

We dodged and weaved through the mass of people, guards now flooding the area as well as subjects running around from other areas. As we came around another corner we heard a shrill scream of terror from a room and I automatically ran forward and into the Cell room where a young girl had two guards trying to subdue her. I let out a yell and Threw one guard into a wall and picked the other up and slammed him back down.

The girl, a Biotic given her tattoo coloration, gold for the Cell color and showing her to be the Subject 6 of her Cell, was crying as she crawled backward to lean against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.

"What's up?" Wes asked as the others came in after me.

"Where's the rest of your Cell kiddo?" Max asked the girl, kneeling in front of her.

She hiccupped, "I d-don't know – our door opened, the guards came at us, the others, they left, they ran outside but I couldn't follow because these guys showed up!"

"Why didn't you use your Biotics?" Noah asked.

"I did! But I'm no good, it takes me too long to recharge, I'm useless!" And she broke down completely, bawling her eyes out.

"Kid, you can cry later, right now you need to get up," Noah ordered sternly, grabbing her arm and pulling her suddenly to her feet.

"Noah, what're you-?" Max started, but Noah spoke to the girl again:

"What's your name?"

"S-Susan."

"Cell number?"

"Cell 4."

"You've been here a while?"

"Yes…"

"How long have you been in Phase Two?"

"Not real long, I haven't been in many matches."

"Have they tried to do anything about your recharge time?"

"Yeah, but it hasn't worked well so far…"

"Right, you're coming with us."

"Whoa, what?" Max exclaimed.

"Noah, why-" Lacy was cut off when Noah turned to give us a hard frown.

"She's been here this long and her talent has yet to amount to much and their attempts to improve her haven't worked, _and_ she's in Phase Two. Either she will get killed or injured enough to be considered obsolete, or she'll continue to perform badly and they'll decide she isn't worth the effort."

I understood what he was getting at: "She needs to go with Noah and Lacy; she needs to get out of here too."

The girl, Susan, had stopped crying and was staring at us with big, confused eyes.

"Right, okay, makes sense, let's go then. We're almost there," Wes agreed.

"I- I don't understand…"

"We'll explain on the way, come one!" Lacy answered reassuringly enough so Susan followed as we re-entered the crazed halls.

I pushed her to the middle with Lacy and Noah to make sure she didn't get lost. Luckily she knew how to handle a gun well enough to help keep back the guards, even though she was jumpy and her aim wasn't so great. Kinda like me.

Noah was breathing raggedly and kept having to shake his head and squint his eyes whenever he tried to shoot. Finally we reached the bigger set of doors that led out of the Project Research area and into what should be the 'Personnel' section of the station.

The hangar should be close, we were almost there! Wes opened the doors right as a whole platoon of guards – where the heck did they get all these guys? – came from the first right hall of the Personnel side. It wasn't as bad as it could've been since we need to go left to reach the hangar and shuttle bay, but we had no idea how much time we have left before they regained control of all the security systems.

The six of us ducked into the left hall and were able to take decent cover behind some storage bins. Max pulled out a nice rifle he'd gotten his hands on, and Wes had found a random guard with a sniper rifle. Noah, Lacy and Susan had pistols.

I didn't have a gun, which was not good really cuz at this point I was running out of juice and would probably need one soon, much as I hated the stupid things.

The guards were able to take cover, too, and they bunkered down and spread out a little, trying to get better angles on us.

I was able to get out a few Biotic attacks, but was getting really, really tired… Max looked over at me and pulled a bulky pistol from his belt. I stared; he grinned.

"Figured you'd need it."

I made a face but took the gun, "Thanks."

I fired once before jerking my head in surprise at Tate yelling across the link: *_I've lost access to the systems! They're overriding the virus, get them OUT!_*

Dammit, there was no way we could get rid of these guys quick enough! They just kept coming if we actually took any down!

"You three, go on and get to the shuttles! We'll hold them here – you just shoot any you run in to!" Wes ordered.

"But we can't just leave you guys in a fight!" Noah protested.

"Yes you can, there are signs to show the way, don't make this have been a waste of time! Go!"

"We got your backs, don't worry! And you'll get us out later, so we'll be even!" Max yelled back.

I flashed a confident grin, "Head out guys, we got this."

"I – okay. Thank you! We _will_ get you out! I promise!" Lacy answered, putting a hand on Susan's shoulder to move her forward and Noah looked back at us before he left:

"Thanks guys, for everything. This may have been hell, but at least we ended up with you guys."

They turned a corner and were gone.

Almost giddy from the mixture of anxiety, relief, and adrenaline, I re-focused on the fight at hand, shooting a pistol right out of a guard's hand.

This is actually going to work!

* * *

_**NOAH**_

His arms and legs were shaking, every nerve in his body felt like it was being stabbed with white-hot needles. His body seemed immensely heavy, his insides were tight and burning, his vision blurry and faded, and his lungs ached as he tried to breathe – he had to keep up with Lacy and the other girl, he couldn't slow them down. And Lacy would waste time worrying. They had no time to wait.

If nothing else, he had to make sure the two girls got out of here alive.

They met no resistance as they reached the hangar doors. Noah and Susan stood guard, guns at the ready, as Lacy set to bypassing the locks. He clenched his jaw as his breathing started to hitch and his hands shook worse, the pressure building up in his head. God, it was like that blasted head device all over again…

"Noah? Noah! What's wrong?"

He looked over, startled at Lacy's frantic tone. She was clutching his upraised arm, looking confused and worried. Crap.

"Sorry, sorry, I've got a headache is all. You got the door?"

"Yes, that's what I was trying to tell you – are you sure it's only a headache? You're shaking, Noah."

"Yeah, you don't look so good," Susan added uncertainly.

He almost tried downplaying it, but as he opened his mouth he clamped it shut again, shaking his head, "We need to go. Now."

"But-"

"No Lacy, don't make me say what we both know you don't want to hear, alright? We both know I'm not okay."

Susan was looking back and forth in confusion; Lacy looked like she was going to cry. Noah sighed as he turned for the open doors, "Come on, we gotta get to a shuttle before they regain complete control."

"Okay," was her whispered answer and this time he took the lead so he could take care of any security patrols…

Like that one! A lone guard strolling around started in surprise at seeing them – either because he hadn't expected anyone to get this far or because he wasn't paying any attention to his radio.

Noah raised his pistol to shoot, but his head throbbed and his vision started to black out, he could hear the girls screaming as the guard charged forward with a shotgun… shaking, Noah sprang at the guard, hoping to punch him before he could let off a shot. He swung his fist, and to his surprise, white energy flowed out and blasted the guard back.

"Noah, are you crazy? _Don't_!" Lacy shrieked.

But Noah blinked in surprise at his hand as he realized the pressure in his head had lightened considerably with that punch… His eyes snapped up as the guard tried to get back up; Noah held his arm up again, ignoring his cousin's protests, and lifted the guard into the air and then hit him with enough energy to slam him against the wall.

The guard crumpled to the floor and didn't move again.

Noah could feel Lacy seething at his side, but he felt an odd relief – his headache was gone. But the consequences of using his Biotics were hitting now, and he doubled over as the pain tightened his chest and stomach, making his legs even weaker and he had to lean against a low wall.

So that's how it was going to be, huh? Either let the pressure of suppressing his Biotics build up and cause something in his brain to rupture, or have his reaction to the Biotics shut his system down.

Yeah, they had really messed him up.

"Are. You. In_. Sane?" _Lacy hissed as he straightened. Her expression was a mixture of anger and fear and worry.

"That first punch came out on its own, Lace. It – it made my headache less painful. Now my headache is gone. If I _don't_ use my Biotics, the headache will kill me, same as if I _do _use my Biotics and my organs shut down and collapse."

Lacy just stared in stunned horror and Susan's eyes were getting bigger as she realized what he was saying.

"Wait, so – so you're just going to… to die? Can't they fix you or something?"

"They already tried-" His explanation was interrupted by a hail of bullets as a full patrol squad came charging in.

The three subjects took cover behind the low wall, and when the pressure started building in his head again, he made his decision. He held his pistol ready and looked at Susan, then at Lacy. She was white and shaking as they held eye contact for a moment.

Then he said, "I'm going to hit these guys with everything I've got. While they're distracted, you go - take the girl and run as fast as you possibly can. The shuttles are just through that office. You take one, you get the both of you the hell off this station and away from here. Do you understand?"

Tears were already running down her cheeks, "Noah, I – I can't leave you, I can't, I came all this way just to find you-"

"Yes, and you found me. Now it's my job to get you outta here alive. You have to make it back to Heath and Mikayla. You have to."

"We'll take you to a doctor, we'll get you help-"

"Why can't I just blow them away now and we make a run for it? My biotics have recharged enough by now-" Susan insisted.

"No, you need to be able to defend against anyone at the shuttles. One blast won't take these guys out, I need to push them back and keep them back. And Lacy… there's no way to fix me. I'm dying one way or the other, and I would rather go out fighting and protecting you. Please, let me do this."

Lacy suddenly flung herself on him, wrapping him in a hug, pressing her tear-streaked face into his shoulder; he hugged her back as tight as he could, tears welling but he didn't let himself cry. He had to be strong here, or they wouldn't make it.

"I'm so sorry. I love you Noah," she sobbed.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for. And I love you too, little cuz. You know you have always been my favorite."

That got a choked laugh from her as he gave her one last squeeze and pulled back. Lacy kissed him on the cheek and rested her forehead against his for a moment before shakily sitting back, tears still in her eyes.

Susan looked lost, "Noah…thank you, for helping me. I… Thank you."

"You're more than welcome. Now both of you, slide down there so you have a straight run to the office once I've got them occupied."

Lacy grabbed his hand as Susan slid by first and she squeezed it hard.

"Bye Lacy; get out in one piece, you hear?" he told her.

"Y-yes. Goodbye. I love you."

"Love you, too. Now get over there."

She slid over and crouched next to Susan, both planting their hands and feet so they could go at a sprint. Noah turned away and took a deep breath; then he launched himself over the wall and unleashed Biotic hell on the patrol.

* * *

_**MEGAN**_

"Come on Meg, you can shoot better than that!"

"Shut up Max! I can_not._" I snapped back.

"Oh shut up the both of you! It doesn't matter much now, Tate says they've nearly overridden the virus, it's just a matter of time until – _Megan, what's wrong?" _Wes exclaimed as sudden and intense fear, sadness, and pain washed over me, driving me to my knees. Lacy and the girl were running, they had reached the shuttles, but Noah…

"Oh my God, _NO!"_ I gasped and threw myself down the hall, running as fast as my legs would carry me.

I heard Max and Wes holler from behind me, but they were forced to hold their position as the guards opened fire again. I tripped over my own feet trying to dodge while turning a corner. I caught myself, jarring my shoulders and bruising my knees, but I was able to push back up and keep running.

My mind was numb with panic as I tried to reach Noah across the link, to beg him to _STOP, _but I couldn't tell if he could even hear me. He couldn't do this, he's going to kill himself, he'll…

Images and visual memory flooded into my mind: Noah talking to Lacy and the Biotic Susan, his own thoughts when he'd realized he didn't have a chance.

He had heard me, then. And now he was telling me why. I felt like I was going to be sick, I could hear explosions and gunfire up ahead, I was almost to them, he'd left the hangar to meet another patrol…

I flew into the fray, Biotics raging and Threw the first three men I saw, crashing them into others and a brilliant white wave came from the other side as Noah blasted away with everything he had. Using his Biotics had caused so much pain before, how… he had found some way to mentally block the pain to keep himself going.

The guards were strewn about the hall in a matter of seconds. I couldn't sense anymore on the way yet; I hopped over the prone bodies to reach Noah, who was staggering and I caught him as he fell, guiding him to the floor as I knelt. I had one arm curled behind him to hold him up, his head on my shoulder; he was grey faced, clammy, and coughing and I tried to sit him straighter to help him breathe.

"Easy, easy Noah, it's okay – there's no more patrols coming, you can relax."

He coughed again and looked up at me, his hazel eyes unfocused, "L-Lacy… did sh-she…"

"They got out Noah, she got away. The shuttle took off right before I found you. You did it Noah, you held the guards off long enough."

He let out a ragged sigh of relief, "Good." He cleared his throat and was breathing more easily, but it was still shallow and labored. "Good," he said again, " 'S everybody else okay?"

God, he was worrying about us. The hot tears that had been blurring my vision now spilled over and I choked as I said, "Yeah, yeah everybody else is okay, we're good, we – God, Noah, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-"

"Stop… not your fault. Lacy said it too. *_cough_* Silly girls."

I couldn't help the choked little laugh and put a hand on his cheek. His skin somehow managed to be both hot and cold at the same time. I took a deep breath before asking quietly, "How bad does it hurt?"

"Hunh. Not really… much at all…kinda…numb, I think…Works… for me, really… Just tired. That's all."

He closed his eyes and I had a total panic moment before he opened them again. When he looked at me, his eyes were clearer than before, and his breathing didn't seem as labored, "You – you guys get them, alright? Make them pay for everything they've done? Lacy'll be back, to get you out. And then you'll all give them hell…"

"You better believe it, alright? We'll give'em a real good show of what a good job they've done on us all, don't doubt that my friend."

"Glad to…hear it," he sighed, "And, hey, tell the others bye for me, 'kay? And thanks, and I'm sorry, would you?"

"You know I will… but there's nothing for you to be sorry for either, Noah. You did good. We couldn't have done it without you. They couldn't have done it."

"Thanks Meg…" his face lit with a small smile.

Terrified and heartbroken, I bit my lower lip and a small noise escaped my throat as I wrapped Noah in a tight hug and pressed my face into his shoulder. His left arm curled partially around my arm and shoulder and he closed his eyes again, letting out a small, contented sigh.

…..

I just sat there, waiting for him to breathe again, a horrible, icy numbness spreading through my body. He wasn't going to take another breath. I knew that… but still I waited.

I – I didn't know what else to do.

* * *

I don't know how long I sat there before I heard the stamping of heavy boots coming up behind me. I pulled my head back a little, keeping my face on Noah. The boots surrounded me, and I watched as one kicked my leg, but I didn't really feel it.

The numbness was still there; though, my skin seemed to be kind of buzzing or something…

An annoying barking noise made me look up. A rifle barrel was inches form my face. The holder of the gun barked again, "Get up, Subject 11! Are you listening? Get up!"

I just stared at him; I understood his words, but I couldn't make myself move.

"I don't think she can, they probably activated the inhibitors as soon as they regained control-" a new, nicer voice started but was interrupted by the barker…

"Fine, then someone grab the dead one and I'll get her."

My eyes went wide as an armored hand reached for Noah…

"_NO! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!"_ I shrieked as my biotics exploded out from me and the guards were thrown back. A wall of white energy glowed between me and them and as they tried to get back up I bombarded them all with blast after blast of raw energy, screaming at them all the while, tears streaming down my wild, enraged face.

I wasn't the only one – someone was shooting at them from down the hall and when I threw open my sixth sense I knew it was Max and Wes, though they were on the ground, moving in a weird, twitchy crawl.

A bullet got past my barrier and burned across my cheek; I tried letting out a bigger blast, but I had reached my limit, my barrier dissolved and the energy backlashed and threw me against the wall, pulling me away from Noah. The guards reached for us again.

"_DON'T TOUCH HIM!" _I screamed, jumping the monster but another grabbed me from behind; I screamed and kicked, but the first one grabbed my legs, they were taking me away, they were telling someone else to grab Noah, NO! They couldn't have him, they weren't allowed!

Wes and Max suddenly got to their feet and charged, Max tackling two guys at once and Wes body-slammed another, activating his electricity over his entire body to intensify his attack. The guard toppled, and so did Max's two after he snapped their necks before launching himself at the two still struggling with me.

I fell to the floor, landing on two guard bodies and had to fight for every move I made. Max and Wes were shaking just like I was, but they kept going.

More guards from their side of the hall. Without thinking I grabbed a shotgun and let them have it, but with the shaking and not being able to see straight, my aim was even worse.

"They can't have him! They can't have Noah!" I yelled to the others, giving in to desperate panic. What were we supposed to do?

Max punched down the last guard on our side and charged again with an enraged roar, but two of the guards rushed to meet him and they collided, the guards managing to pin Max to the floor even as he kept struggling.

Wes looked at Noah and the oncoming guards, and started shooting again to keep them back as he tried to move forward.

Some of the guards we had knocked out before were getting back up and I was forced to turn and shoot at them to try and keep them from getting any closer, but Wes suddenly screamed:

"_GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM YOU SONS OF BITCHES_!"

I whipped back around to see two of the guards lifting Noah's body off the floor; I screamed in fury and Wes and I tried to run forward but the three guards came up behind us. Two grabbed Wes and the other wrapped his arms around my waist, hoisting me into the air.

Wes was fighting back with all he had to break their grip and I kicked my heels down at my captor's legs while screaming right in the guy's ear.

Max had beaten down one of his attackers and he literally threw the second one off, flinging him through the air so that he crashed into one of those holding Wes. He made another run for them, but one of those holding Noah pulled a gun and shot at him – one bullet grazed his left ankle and the second opened a long gash on his thigh, and he hit the ground hard.

The one holding me flinched when the guard went flying by and I managed to bring my arms up and butt him in the face with my gun, making him stumble back and we landed hard on the floor, me on top. I kept beating him on the head with my shotgun until he stopped moving.

Wes tried lighting himself up again, but he was pretty much out of juice. With unusual accuracy, I flung the shotgun at the guard's head. He had to let go of Wes to duck, and the Tech swung his arms forward and then back again, using the last of his static shock to zap the guy down.

Max couldn't move, Wes and I were both out of energy, and there were two more guards standing between us and the two holding Noah - they weren't trying to go anywhere, apparently wanting to take all of us in at once.

Their mistake.

Wes shouted, "I think I have an idea!" so he and I charged forward anyway. Max picked up another gun, taking down one of the guards by shooting his knees, while I dodged a bullet and slammed into the other one, grappling with him for the gun.

"I hope this works!" Wes growled out as he tapped at his cuff and dove around me, hitting the floor and rolling to his knees, holding his right arm out, the cuff whistling shrilly and sparking as a long tongue of fire shot out, engulfing the two guards and Noah's body.

…Wes knew how to Incinerate?

Max and I gawped and the guard wrested away from me, heading for Wes, but the others had dropped Noah and were running away, flailing their arms and swearing as they tried to put out the flames. They were gone.

There was an abrupt silence as they disappeared, interrupted only by our heavy breathing and the flames as they wrapped around Noah's body.

"You – you're right, they can't have him," Wes said shakily, tears beginning to run down his normally composed face, "And… and I think this is the best way to make sure they don't."

He held his arm out again, letting loose another bout of flame.

I could only stare for a moment; but then Max groaned as he tried to get up and I knelt to help him, pulling his arm around my shoulders and we stood next to Wes.

Wes slowly stopped the fire emitting from his cuff and hung his head, his cuffs continuing to spark, his whole body shaking.

"It…it was the right thing to do, Wes," Max said hoarsely, giving a hard swallow. "He wouldn't want …to be used so they could hurt more people later."

"Yeah, I just… I wish there was more we could have done to help him, he… he deserves better than being reduced to ashes and then forgotten."

"He won't be forgotten, Wes," I whispered.

"I – I know," he answered, lifting his head.

"I wish there was some way for us to take him back home, get him out of this hell and give him a proper burial…" Max responded.

I looked to the front and took a shaky breath, "Maybe – maybe we can."

I moved forward slowly after asking Wes to help keep Max on his feet – noticing that I wasn't shaking so much anymore, so I assumed they had shut down the inhibitors - and for a moment I stood next to the ashes, fresh tears pricking my eyes. Trembling, I took hold of the ragged edge of my right pant leg and ripped off a good sized chunk of the material.

Hesitating, I looked over to the guys, not sure if this was the right thing to do; but they nodded once they realized what I wanted to do.

Very carefully, keeping the memory of Noah smiling in the forefront of my mind, I gathered some of the ashes onto the fabric and put the corners together, tying it off to form a small pouch. When I reached them, I looked up,

"I – we can take him back home, this way, when we get out." I held strong to the thought that Lacy would be back, that she would find some way to get us out; if I didn't make myself believe that, then I was going to go crazy.

"Yeah, it - this was a good idea, Meg," Max said reassuringly, grimacing a little as Wes reached to rip a strip off the bottom of his shirt.

"Here, tie it off with this too," Wes suggested, "and maybe hide it in one of your pockets, or tie it to your belt and just make sure your shirt stays pulled down to cover it."

I nodded as I took the strip from him; I tucked the pouch under my belt and then tied the ends of the strip around it for extra security, to make sure there was no chance of it falling off.

And… that was it; we were done, for now. Lacy and Susan had gotten away successfully, and Lacy would find help from somebody to get us out of this place. We didn't want the guards just coming right back and finding us again, so Wes and I both helped Max back to the Personnel/Research door.

I was paying more attention, the numbness still there but the shock my mind seemed to have been in was easing, and I only then really noticed how beat up and bloody they were from the guards forcing their way past them, and now even worse from the last fight, especially Max. Wes tried to open the doors, but the systems must have been fried, because he couldn't open them and it would seem that neither could the guards on the other side who showed up after a few minutes.

Some woman was yelling at the guards and they ended up having to pry the doors open to get to us. We just sat there.

The woman, tall with dark hair tied in a bun and wearing a black and white outfit with the Cerberus logo on the chest, stormed in and stopped short at seeing us just sitting there.

Max waved at her, a huge smirk on his face.

She curled her lip and snapped her fingers; the guards moved in and yanked us to our feet, hooking our cuffs together, both sets, and shoved us back into the Research section, the guards having to keep Max up and moving, the other patrol we drove away earlier joining us, two still sporting scorch marks.

"Well, since it would appear that Cell 21 is responsible for this mess, take them to Level Five – Dr. Thoen will be waiting to deal with them."

"Should we call for a medical team?"

The three of us, and everybody else, stared at the one guard – he was one of those we had driven back, why would he care whether or not we received medical attention? He sounded young, his voice a light tenor.

"No," the woman said, "I'm sure they'll be fine." Yeah right, witch woman. She raised a brow at the guard's hesitant nod. "There a problem?"

Again he hesitated; then he shook his head, "No ma'am."

"Good – now get moving."

Level Five was darker and had a lot more doors lining the halls. The link alerted us when we were getting closer to the rest of our Cellmates. From the myriad of emotions that matched our own, we knew they already knew what had happened to Noah.

Donna was still crying silently; Brandon was still in shock; Marvin's stoic composure was barely holding together as he seethed; and Tate was clenching his jaw as he glared at the floor. They were hobbled just like us.

Dr. Thoen showed up a few minutes later – and lo and behold, it was Mega-Bitch herself with a shiny new pair of lenses. She still had that arrogant smirk on her stupid face.

From the way I now found myself thinking, I suppose I was coming out of the shock… or in a new stage of it. Not sure how it works. But the numbness had started wearing off as soon as we rejoined the others, and now I was feeling the physical effects of overexerting myself.

Glasses looked us over in silence, taking in our injuries, and her smirk grew. Then her eyes settled on me, "And then there were seven; soon to be eight again, we'll find the girls, don't you worry. As for Subject 4…"

She trailed off, and then gave a full on evil grin and laughed.

She_ laughed._

I tried launching myself at her, hissing, as did all the others, but none of us got close – the inhibitors stopped us. Dammit, why was it suddenly so much more effective than it had been earlier?

"In the end, this will all have proven futile, but to discourage others from following your idiotic example, and to teach _you_ a lesson, you are being placed in solitary confinement, for as long as I please. You will receive no food, no water, and no treatments."

She laughed again, "I wonder which of you will die next?" She chuckled as she walked away and the guards moved in.

* * *

**A/N: T_T *Waaaahhh* I'm sorry, I didn't want to, but I had to, it was part of the story from the start! I'm so attached to my people now, this was nearly impossible to write! ...I cried... multiple times... *sniff*...**


	12. Ch12: Isolation

Disclaimer: Mass Effect belongs to BioWare, and any other references belong to their respective owners, not me(this goes for whole fic).

MEFF: Project Darwin, Chapter 12

* * *

**A/N: I have finally won the battle with Writer's Block! It was close and took a while, but I have prevailed, and so here it is! Hope you enjoy :)**

_***ISOLATION***_

**PRESENT DAY: ISOLATION, DAY 3**

I lay curled on the cold floor, drawing one ragged gasp after another, the breath rasping in my throat.

_Keep breathing._

The words echoed through my mind, repeating over and over.

_Keep breathing._

The mantra that kept us alive. I dimly remember Glasses wondering which of us would be the next to die. They really were looking to see which of us would give out first.

_Keep breathing._

We had been foolish enough to think they wouldn't actually leave us to die. Now we were trapped in these holes, and we were alone…

_Keep breathing._

Deep, heavy coughs racked my body, tearing up my throat even more. Choking, I rolled onto my back, clothes sticking to my skin, sweat-damp bangs plastered to my face. I closed my eyes; I couldn't see a way out of this one…

_Keep breathing…_

* * *

**ISOLATION, DAY ONE**

*_How ya holding up Max?_*

*_Oh I'm just peachy, how 'bout you?_* was Max's surly reply to Brandon.

Brandon gave a mental shrug *_Better than you I suppose, but seriously – is your leg gonna be okay?_*

*Sigh – _Yeah, I guess. The bleeding's stopped and I have it propped on the wall to keep it straight._*

*_Good_* Tate replied softly *_We don't need to lose anybody else._* There was a load of pain behind that statement, along with something that bothered me…

*_Tate – why do you feel guilty?_*

There was silence as we waited for his answer. Then –

*_It's my fault._*

Incredulity and denial were the two dominant emotions across the link from the rest of us.

*_What?! Tate, how could _any _of this possibly be _your _fault?!_* I asked, shocked. What was he thinking?

He balked for a second – he didn't want us to feel everything as he said it, but also knew that right now he didn't have a choice. His words came in a rush:

*_It was my plan! My idea, but I didn't plan well enough, or soon enough, if I had activated the virus earlier Noah would've been okay!_*

*_Wha -? You can't know that, nobody can know that! And it's not like you _didn't _activate the virus earlier, you _couldn't_! _* Max exclaimed.

*_You did it the first chance you got, how could you have done it before?_* Donna demanded to know.

Tate didn't have an answer.

*_And who cares whose plan it was first, we all tried to think of the best course of action, and we found it – there was no way to plan everything out, there were too many unknowns. And if we had _tried_ to plan it step-by-step, Noah would've been dead before we even left the cell._* Marvin said, trying to reason with him.

*_But if Noah hadn't been forced to use his Biotics - _*

*_Okay stop right there, because you go any further with that, than it will be our three's fault that he died._* Wes interrupted.

That threw Tate for a loop and he actually mentally stuttered before asking, *_How?_*

*_We're the ones who decided we should split up, we're the ones who made them go ahead with no escort, knowing that none of them were able to use their abilities to protect themselves._* Wes answered.

*_And it was my idea to split us all up in the first place!_*

*_Oh would you stop trying to find a reason to blame yourself! If we hadn't split, those guards we dealt with would've come up and overwhelmed the whole group before you even had the chance to figure out how to let the other Cells out!_* Brandon shot out, sounding annoyed.

Okay, my turn, before this gets ugly from emotions run ragged and tempers flare worse. And they needed this anyway.

*_Tate there is nothing we could have done – Noah knew that. And he learned something worse: he would have died even had he not used his Biotics. Not using them built up some sort of pressure in his head, like the headaches the head device would give us, but worse._*

*_How do you know that?_*

I sighed, *_Here – everybody be quiet for a minute._* Taking a shaky breath, I replayed for them the memories Noah had shared with me, and all the emotions that went with them. Silent tears slid down my cheeks again, and I found myself desperately wanting for a hug. I like hugs, and it was sad that I was going to have to wait to get one.

There was silence, and more calm within the collective grief. Tate was still resistant; he still felt responsible and didn't want to just let himself off the hook, as he saw it.

*_It was none of our fault, Tate. The only people to blame are the ones running this place. If it hadn't been for you, and for all of us, we would've lost Lacy as well._* Max said quietly.

We relaxed as Tate finally accepted our reasoning; he, and the rest of us, were in no way over anything that had happened, but at least no one was trying to blame anybody else. So we were doing one step better than we had been when we got stuck in these tiny cells.

*_And it's not like they'll actually let us die in here,_* Max continued, *_there's nothing wrong with us, we're far too valuable. Especially after pulling this off._*

*_They'll probably pull us out as we reach our limit._* Marvin agreed.

*_Hopefully._* Brandon muttered.

* * *

**ISOLATION, DAY 2**

I was so hungry. Horribly thirsty too, but more than anything else I wanted _food_! Biotics really do need to eat a lot, and I was running on empty. All of us were.

We kept the link up, though on the minimum 'volume' to keep us from snarking off at each other. Being stuck in these stupid rooms without food or water while already injured was making for short tempers. So in essence we were alone in our thoughts.

Alone time was not good for me – too much time to think about things I'd been too preoccupied to think about before: my family, my friends, all the people I was taken away from. I wondered what they thought had happened to me – did I run away, or was I kidnapped? There would be no clues to go on, no evidence left behind. It would be like I just _disappeared._

Would I be able to go back home? Was that even a possibility, when I don't know how I got here or why me? Or who it was that dumped me on Elysium?

What would my family think if they knew what had really happened? Not much they could do about it, but maybe knowing that would help them to … I dunno, move on, and accept that there _was _nothing they could do. They would miss me and they would worry, especially if they knew what I was going through right now.

I worried about them – I was kind of the 'go to' person in the family if any of my four siblings needed to talk, get advice, vent, or get a hug when they needed it. I was the calm one, the one who mediated the fights (unless I was part of it of course), talked them down. They had nicknamed me the 'Family Counselor'.

What would they do now, when they needed someone who would just sit and listen, let them get their feelings out and try to help them see the good in the bad? I had always been rather different than the rest of my family, than most people I'd met, in the way I could read people and situations, understand different personalities. I'm a worrier, and couldn't help but wonder who would pick up my role back home…

A sudden fit of coughing made me curl over and it was hard to stop when my throat was so dry. I was shaking as I leaned back against the wall, tilting my head back and closing my eyes, and I kept swallowing to try and keep the coughs down.

*_You alright?_* Tate asked, his voice weary.

*_As fine as I can be right now, I guess. You?_*

He was quiet for a moment before answering, *_Fine as well I suppose. I can't stop shaking though. I don't like it._*

*_Me too; but it'll pass. It'll be okay, it's just cuz we all need food and water. And medical attention would be nice._*

*_Yeah…_* he sighed, a mixture of anger, frustration, fatigue and just annoyance coming from him. *_God, I can't wait to get out of here._*

I smiled, *_Here as in Solitary, or here as in 'Project Darwin'?_*

He snorted, *_Both._*

I gave a small laugh, but that got me coughing again. And I wasn't the only one – all of us were sick in some way. Our bodies were demanding food, water, and … something else, I think. It was an odd feeling, like when you're craving a particular thing to eat, but you can't tell what it is you want.

The coughing eventually stopped. My ribs ached as I sat back against the wall. Damn. Breathing was getting to be very painful.

* * *

**PRESENT DAY**

_**DR. THOEN, A.K.A. 'GLASSES'**_

She paced back and forth agitatedly in front of the holo projector – The Illusive Man was not happy with her, she knew that, and she knew this report would be unpleasant. This was the first time he had called for her to give him her report _directly_ to him. That was not good.

The projector dinged, a red light flashed and she stepped onto the circle platform, the transmitter lights surrounding her.

Her boss appeared in front of her – he was sitting in his chair and smoking a cigarette, his back to her as he faced the dying star.

"You disappoint me, doctor."

She swallowed at his deceptively calm tone, but before she could say anything he continued:

"First you turn what was supposed to be a relatively small project, able to be kept hidden, into an enormous operation, requiring you to enlist outside help," he turned to face her, " And then you try to progress too quickly and allow your Subjects to kill one another in combat, thus wasting valuable resources, and now I hear one of your Subjects, who is one of the aforementioned outsiders, managed to reactivate a virus he had created and used against you once already, to enable the escape of not just one, but two of your Subjects. I also heard that you have yet to apprehend them."

"We are looking, we _will_ find them, and – they are only two, a third was with them, and he-"

"Two is two too many, doctor. And this third you speak of is dead, and yet you have no body to study, no way of learning anything from him for your research. Another waste."

"I – I don't know how, but one of the Tech Subjects managed to – to enable his device to use an incineration technique. They burned the body to prevent us from using it for study."

The Illusive Man pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose, "How sentimental. You do realize that that virus sent out a distress signal both times it was active?"

"Yes, but it never transmitted long enough for anyone who cares to pinpoint our location."

"But it could get them close enough if they do an investigation into why the same signal transmitted twice, with months in between activations. Don't you think someone might find that suspicious? Understand me, Dr. Thoen, if you are found, Cerberus will not take the fall for you. You and all those in your project will be disavowed as renegades and I will deny all involvement. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir. I already have security measures in place should that threaten to happen."

"And what of this virus? I hope I can trust that you have completely removed any trace of it from your systems?"

"Yes, they will not be able to use it again. I _will_ maintain control of this station."

"I certainly hope so, for your sake."

* * *

_**MEGAN**_

_He's crashing, he's crashing! _

The realization made me panic; I forced myself to take a deep breath and to hold it as all of us joined together over the link in urging Max to breathe, forcing him to awareness, keeping him alive. We were not going to lose another!

The effort nearly made me pass out, and I barely noticed my sixth sense pinging, alerting me to someone approaching, and whoever it was didn't come across as hostile.

*_Guys! Someone is coming! I think they're going to let us out!_* I broadcast, excitement momentarily overtaking my exhaustion. Relief and desperate hope was what I felt from the others.

My door made a series of beeps and Dr. Saroial hurried in. I could see a whole group of people in the hall, all heading for different doors. The doctor knelt next to me, pulling a vial out of a coat pocket. As he pulled the stopper out I tried to say something, to tell him Max was in trouble, he needed more help than me, but all that came out of my parched throat was a raspy croak.

"Shush girl. Drink this, quickly now."

He made me sit up a little as he tipped the contents of the vial into my mouth. It was a thicker liquid that did not taste good, but it was wet so I was happy to drink, even if it was just a few sips worth.

Doc let me lay back down and I swallowed a few more times before I could whisper, "Max – help Max."

"I've got people helping the rest – he's being taken to get treated."

I nodded my thanks and watched him prep a syringe full of something that looked familiar, but my tired mind couldn't remember…

When he saw me frowning at it – I wasn't real fussed for meds, it was food and water that I wanted – he explained, "It's the Darwin Drug; you need it to stabilize your system or your boy may reject food."

Oh. I turned my head as he put the needle into the soft part of my forearm. The injection site burned for a flash of a second, my pulse raced and my head spun, but it was all kind of in a good way. I pushed myself up and I bristled when I sensed someone else quickly headed our way.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Glasses demanded as she stalked up.

To my surprise the doctor stood and glared at her, "You hired me to keep your Subjects alive and fit for study – that's what I am doing."

For a second it looked as though she might kill him right then and there, but for some reason she suddenly calmed.

"Make sure you do a proper job of it, doctor, or I'll find another use for you."

And she marched away.

I was in shock. Doc had come to get us without her permission? And she was letting it slide? Had the world gone mad while we were in here? I reached for the others across the link: most of them seemed to be bouncing back quick and experiencing the same rush as me, but Max and Donna were slower to respond to the drugs, but even they were clear of the danger zone.

I sagged against the wall in relief; we were going to be okay, we'd made it through. Doc looked confused at my smile, but I just shook my head. He asked if I could stand and I shook my head again.

Doc nodded, "I'm not surprised, only the big Soldier is able to stand on his own right now."

Well good for Marvin then, and good for Doc for not just calling him 'Subject 9'. Max had already been taken out on a stretcher, and more were brought in for the rest of us and they put all of us in the same big medical room. Doc hooked us all up to IVs as well as giving us food bars and really big water containers with tubes for us to use like straws.

My first instinct was to suck down as much water as possible, but the assistants had some kind of control over how much we could drink at once. Which was good, otherwise we would have all made ourselves even sicker.

As Dr. Saroial fitted my IV I noticed him giving me an odd look, but would look away when he saw me looking at him.

"What's up Doc?"

He stared at me for a second – clearly not catching on to my random Bugs Bunny reference – before asking quietly, "Why didn't you just leave?"

I was taken aback, "Huh?"

"You, the other two with you, even all of you, why didn't you _all _head for the shuttles, for escape?"

"Uh – we didn't really have time. Seriously, those two barely made it out even with all the distractions we provided; there's no way all of us could've made it. We would have been overwhelmed from everywhere if we hadn't separated, and even if we had made it, someone would've been left behind trying to keep them off us."

"But just the three of you, you could have followed the other two, couldn't you?"

Now I was aghast, "And just leave Noah to die alone? Leave the rest to be made examples of by you people, and probably killed? Just – no, just no dude, seriously, no way. And – and that wasn't even part of the plan in the first place, us getting out never even crossed my mind, we weren't just going to _abandon -_"

"Alright alright, calm down. I understand," he sighed, "Very noble of you, but - "

"But nothing old guy," Max snarled, "as if you could possibly understand what we were thinking."

Clearly surprised the others had heard us, Doc set his mouth in a thin line and he didn't say anything more, finishing with me and moving to Brandon. None of us spoke until the doctor and his assistants left us alone about an hour later.

Max let out a derisive snort right after the door closed, "Ignorant prick."

"He's really not so bad Max," Tate said.

When Max gave him an incredulous look, Tate added, "He came to help us of his own volition. I don't know why the woman let him get away with it, but you would be dead if he had waited any longer."

The Soldier sighed through his nose, "Yeah, I guess. Still doesn't mean I have to_ like_ him though."

"Of course not, but it's nice to know he's not a total bad guy," Donna argued.

"But he is still a bad guy," Max pressed. Stubborn git.

Tate rolled his eyes, "Whatever. If you wanna think he's a bad guy, go ahead. Just know that he ended up here the same way I did – false pretenses."

"Yes, but you tried to help, therefore elevating you to 'good guy' status. He is a cowardly wimp more concerned with his own skin than all of us in here. So he remains at 'bad guy' status."

"Max, he just helped all of us at the risk of his own skin, duh. That's what Tate just told you," Brandon said, also rolling his eyes.

"That's different – and I acknowledged that he's not _as much_ of a bad guy."

"Just agree to disagree and shut up, alright?" Marvin grumbled.

"Geez, you are _always_ telling us to -" Max complained, until he saw Marvin's scowl – and the two fingers he was holding to his temple. "Well alright, fine then. Shutting up."

"Thank you," Marvin replied, and then: *_Way to catch on idiot._*

*_Stuff it Hulk._*

*_What did you need to say Marvin?_* Wes cut in.

*_Mainly a question,_* he looked over at me, *_How did you know they were coming, and that they were specifically coming to help?_*

I cocked my head to the side, *_Couldn't you guys?_*

He shook his head, as did the others.

*_We only knew they were coming because you told us._* Donna answered.

*_Oh. I thought I was just the first to say anything; to be able to say anything._* I said slowly.

*_No, I've noticed this before – you've been able to tell when guards are coming, how hostile they are, even a vague knowledge of how many. None of us can do that. Why can you?_* Marvin asked.

*_I – I really don't know, I mean, Tate and Wes have higher levels with that head device than me, they should be more sensitive, or aware, than me._*

*_That may not be how it works – each of us has our own ability, it may be that our level merely determines how efficient we are I using our abilities,_* Wes considered, *_And since we've all had so much experience with the link, it's possible Megan's awareness has simply expanded somehow to include others in her sensitivity range._*

I started thinking this was actually kinda cool, until Marvin sighed, *_That's what I was afraid of._*

*_What do you mean?_* I asked, frowning, and I wasn't the only one confused.

*_Look, we know that they suspect what we can do with the link or something like it, and that's fine so long as we don't give them any real proof to play with. But we have absolutely got to keep this quiet – there's no telling what special experiments they would come up with to test this special ability of yours._*

*_Damn. Normally your pessimism irritates me, but you have a point._* Max said, sounding worried.

*_It'll be fine, we just don't call attention to it,_* Tate said.

*_Not like we talk aloud about any of our link stuff anyway._* Brandon put in.

I nodded, not fully paying attention – something was off, but I couldn't quite… Donna shuffled uncomfortably on her bed, grimacing. I frowned, sliding off my bed and dragging my IV machine with me to go over to her.

"Are you okay?"

She rubbed her forehead, "I'm not sure, actually. My head hurts in a weird way, and I feel…wobbly."

That got everyone else out of bed and Donna blinked in surprise at our instant reaction as we surrounded her and bombarded her with questions: "How long have you felt like this?" "Did the drug help any or make it worse?" "Don't you dare downplay anything-" "How many fingers am I holding up?" And so on and so forth.

It was cute, the Russian lady all embarrassed at suddenly being the total center of attention of our concern.

We were still in a huddle when Dr. Saroial returned, and he wasn't alone.

"You can't be serious!" he was protesting to Glasses, who just glared him down haughtily.

"You said you were ensuring they were fit for study, yes? The Arena is where they are to be studied, and that is where they are to go."

My jaw dropped. WHAT!?

"They've only been put of those cells for a few hours, they haven't recovered yet!"

"So you say, but remember that you are a Biotic specialist, not Tech or Soldier. Each Class will be examined by their own specialist and when deemed fit will be arranged for a match. And if you falsify your report to try and keep your Biotics out of my Arena, they will be the first to enter as a Cross-Class Single Match, do you understand?"

Doc was quiet, clenching his fists and looking ready to shout, but he answered in a tight voice, "I understand."

"Good." Glasses snapped her fingers and a small group of guards came into the room. "You and you – take the Techs to Dr. Herris. You three, escort the Soldiers to Dr. Thomas. If they resist in any way, shoot them."

Doc came over and unhooked our IVs, face still red with anger. At least he seemed to be developing more of a backbone.

I squeezed Donna's hand as she got up, and Max and Marvin kept her between them as they were led out. Wes and Tate were completely silent as they left, staring straight ahead with their chins up, expressions bored as they ignored the guard trying to taunt them.

Then it was just me, Brandon and Doc, so he started his examination. As one of his machines scanned me, Brandon asked him, "Do you have any idea what's wrong with Donna?"

Doc frowned, "What do you mean?"

Brandon described her symptoms. "She didn't get better like the rest of us. Why?"

"Did she have these symptoms in the Isolation Cell?"

"No, they only started after she got a shot of the drug," I answered.

Doc rubbed his chin, "I can't say for sure since I wasn't able to give her a full examination, but there may be a problem with her implants."

"Why?"

"The implants and the drug work together: the implants make your body able to accept the drug and the adaptations that come with it, but they also call for continued intake of the drug. As you experienced in Isolation, if you don't receive the drug, it had physical effects similar to an addict's withdrawal. And if you do not have the implants and are given the drug… you die. I have only seen it once; the person's body shuts down and organs collapse and dissolve, causing a breakdown on a cellular level. You have to have both for it to work. With your friend, it may be that one of her implants has been damaged, and her body is no longer able to adapt to the drug as efficiently as it could before."

Brandon and I gawped at him, "But – but that's like really bad! Can they fix it? Will they?"

"We just lost Noah and spent three days in hell, and now this?!"

"Calm down, I believe they can and will help her, there is no reason or them not to."

"Oh thank God," I whispered.

Once done with his examinations, Doc sighed, "By a normal doctor's standards, you ought to both be on bed rest for at least a week and given time to recover – "

"Bull! We're fine, if you really think to keep us here while the others are out there getting the shit beat out of them -" Brandon protested hotly.

Doc interrupted, "I said by a _normal_ doctor's standards, but there is nothing normal about any of this. As far as they are concerned, I suppose you're both right as rain. Just do your best to keep yourselves that way."

Brandon and I high-fived as Doc dismissed us and we were escorted to a rinse-off room. It wasn't exactly a shower, but it was close: they shoved us in there fully clothed, in groups, and the whole ceiling was like a showerhead, spraying us continuously with ice-cold water for about five minutes. I guess it was a two-in-one deal in that it cleaned off us and our clothes just enough to not be super nasty. I think the main reason they do it (usually after every few sessions or training bouts) is to ensure us Subjects don't start dying off from each other's rank stank. None of us smelled real good, but we didn't stink too bad either.

I hate cold water. Brandon and I stared at each other, teeth chattering, while we waited it out. At least our lips don't turn blue anymore.

I had to keep part of my shirt rolled up around the pouch on my belt, though, to make sure it didn't get wet. A few minutes of the room then being heated to dry us off passed, and we were led to the Arena.

Brandon and I were relieved to see the others – though we had hoped Donna would be held out. Maybe they just weren't going to put her in for now.

Our cuffs were hooked as usual, but a guard came for Marvin right after the first match... and they came for Marvin only. So he was going to be the first from our Cell to do a One-on-One. Not that surprising since he was in the best condition, but I still didn't like it.

The others could feel my anxiety and I could feel theirs; we all blocked again to keep ourselves from going nuts with it.

We waited forever for Marvin and his opponent to enter the pit.

Somehow I just wasn't surprised that it was Lieutenant Hashton.


	13. Ch13: Promise Made

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect!

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 13

* * *

_**A/N: **_**Hey there! Got a POV swap in this one, hope you guys like the chapter. Sorry this took so long, our internet stopped working. Took a few days to resolve.**

_***PROMISE MADE***_

_**Marvin**_

He curled and uncurled his fingers as he waited for the door to open. He wasn't happy about being here again, but better him than one of the others. He could handle this.

He strode forward confidently into the Arena; his dark eyes flashed angrily at the sight of his opponent. Hashton. Of course.

The Lieutenant gave a wide, crazy grin and threw back his head and laughed, "Why so solemn Major? This is a happy reunion! We are not dead! Are you not pleased to see me?"

Marvin sighed, "I do not wish you dead, but it does not please me to see you here. And not… as you are."

"As I am? How am I, Major? Sir? Shall I call you 'Sir'? Or is it just 'Rayner' now? Or 'Marvin'? I shall call you Marvin, ha!"

"It's Major Rayner to you Lieutenant – we're still Alliance Marines," Marvin said through gritted teeth. He had to keep calm, stay focused.

The buzzer sounded and the two took a few steps forward.

"No need to be so formal – I assume they assume we're dead, we've been gone for so long."

"It's called 'Missing in Action', Lieutenant."

"Oh please, our ship blew up in the middle of empty space, where would they think we went?"

They were walking in a wide circle, eyeing each other, trying to size the other up. Hashton had a wild gleam in his eyes, "But we have done well here, yes? I hear your Cell was responsible for that little uprising a few days ago."

"Yes…" Marvin answered cautiously. Hashton's tone was making him nervous.

"Ah yes, a pity I was unable to join in the fun. I wasn't let out you see, I could only listen."

_Thank goodness for that, _Marvin thought. This conversation was disturbing.

"You talk like you like this place."

The Lieutenant smiled widely again, "Why would I not? They have made us stronger, faster,_ better_! We are superior beings, Major! We have been given a marvelous gift!" He laughed again, "What is there not to enjoy?"

Marvin could hardly believe what he was hearing, "We are _prisoners_ you fool! Taken to be experimented on like rats, toyed with and tossed aside when we are no longer 'useful'! They care nothing for us, nothing for our survival!"

This clearly angered his opponent.

"The strong survive and the weak are put out of their misery! I am strong! Do you need me to put you out of your misery, _Sir?_" the Lieutenant sneered.

Marvin shook his head in regret, "You are insane."

"And you are a fool!" And Hashton charged.

* * *

_**Megan**_

I sat on the edge of my seat as the two Soldiers collided in the middle of the pit. They moved so fast it was hard to keep up. Hashton was unleashing full fury on Marvin, determined to beat him to the ground.

But Marvin was better than him, he was faster, dodging the blows with seeming ease and throwing out his own lightning-quick hits. Not that Hashton didn't land any, but they didn't do much damage. Marvin's hits were stronger, Hashton's reactions slower, so he was being worn down faster. The Lieutenant had begun in arrogance and feeling assured of a win, but now he was getting frustrated.

'_Come on Marvin, take him down!' _I kept my thought to myself, not wanting to transmit anything and distract him.

The whole fight was intense, never letting up, neither Soldier pulling back to study the other or catch his breath, they just kept going at each other.

Then after about five exhausting minutes it happened – Hashton made a mistake. He fell for Marvin's feint and threw himself forward, causing him to be off balance as Marvin abruptly switched tactics, punching both fists up to catch Hashton under the chin and simultaneously snapping a side-kick into his stomach to send the Lieutenant flying across the Arena to slam into a wall so hard it shook.

Hashton tried to push himself up out of the heap he was in, but lacked the strength – his arms collapsed and his face hit the floor again. He didn't move.

They delayed the buzzer as usual; breathing hard, Marvin wiped the sweat off his face and walked over to his junior officer. The crazy man was still conscious and he glared at Marvin as he stood over him.

"Still think I need to be put out of my misery, _Lieutenant_?" Marvin spat out as Hashton had 'Sir' and 'Major'.

Hashton gave a half-hearted snarl and kept the ugly glare on Marvin as the buzzer finally sounded and my Cellmate turned to walk away.

He'd gone maybe ten feet when I was nearly bowled over by a rush of murderous rage emanating from the pit. I knew what Hashton was going to do a second before he was able to move and I screamed a warning over the link.

Marvin twitched, he almost moved in time, he could've got out of the way but… he stopped, for a fraction of a second. _Why the hell did he stop?!_

He wasn't able to react in time to fully block the sudden crazed attack from Hashton. Marvin tried turning and putting his arms up, but his adrenaline rush was gone and Hashton was too fast.

Hashton hit him in the face, then the ribs, kicking a leg out from under him and then roared as he slammed his huge fists into Marvin's chest. Marvin's eyes went wide and he gave a small grunt and seemed to slowly start to fall to the floor. Hashton went in for another hit.

To others it probably looked like Cell 21 exploded in the stands, and in a way we did – Brandon, Tate, Wes, and I blew us all out of our restraints in one huge burst of energy and the six of us flew into the Arena in the same second.

In the time it took everyone else to blink, mine and Brandon's Biotics had blown Hashton back, Donna caught Marvin before he hit the ground, Max tackled Hashton to the ground and Tate and Wes lit him up with electric currents to keep him down while Max stood over him just out of the currents' range.

Yeah, we had definitely reached a whole new level of badass.

Hashton only tried to get up a few times before collapsing completely, eyes rolling in the back of his head.

Donna lowered Marvin to the floor and I knelt next to them, tears of shock, horror, and anger trying to break free.

"Why? Why did you stop? You could've-" I stopped when he tried to answer.

"Th-they-" Heavy, wet coughs shook him and we helped him upright so he could breathe.

The others had pulled close and Hashton was being taken out. Someone – Brandon, I think – was screaming for a medic. My head was spinning and I felt sick when Marvin coughed up blood.

Marvin tried again through his coughs, his voice tight and scratchy, barely audible, "C-can't… know, th-they would… take…take us… the link, they…" he looked up at us, eyes half lidded, "They can't…know."

Wha- Oh God. He was going to move to my warning, he was going to get out of the way before he had any possible normal chance of knowing anything was going to happen, Cerberus would've noticed, they would want to know why… Dammit, and we had just been talking about this! Marvin had gotten hurt so bad because I wasn't thinking, if I had thought I would've waited to warn him…

_This is my fault, oh my God, this is my fault!_

The medics were there. They lifted Marvin onto a stretcher – his eyes were closed, breathing was shallow and gurgling in his chest. His arm slipped off the edge and hung limp before one of the medics laid it across his chest.

I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate but before any of my Cellmates could tell me to calm down – which I didn't see happening, we were all set to blow up again – I spotted Glasses entering the waiting area where they were taking Marvin out. The whole of my attention re-focused on her and the smirk she gave Marvin's prone form.

There was a mad rushing in my ears as I took a few steps toward her. She glanced up at us, sneered, and activated the inhibitors.

Our nerves tingled and we were shaking, but it didn't really hurt anymore; it was more like when a limb goes to sleep and is trying to 'wake back up'. We were able to keep on our feet easily.

Only the slight widening of her eyes betrayed her surprise. She strutted to within a few feet of where I had stopped.

"You've got a lot of nerve, interfering with another's match."

"The buzzer had sounded – the match was over," I snapped back.

"Seems you can't keep your little playthings in line anymore, so we decided to do it for you," Max said, his mouth twisting into a smarmy smile.

Glasses' eyes narrowed, but she kept her sneer up, "Subject 9 should have been smart enough to not turn his back on an opponent – either that, or to be sure his opponent was unable to initiate such a surprise attack."

"_Marvin_ isn't a monster to keep hitting on someone already defeated," Donna snarled, heavily emphasizing his name.

"You _let_ him make that attack," I accused, "The escorts are supposed to move in right after the buzzer; you held them back."

Glasses ignored us, calling for another guard squad.

Seething, I hissed out, "Enjoy it now, because first chance I get, you're dead."

That made her laugh at me, "Oh? Why not now? Go on, give it a try."

I smiled, but my face was devoid of emotion, "I'm not that stupid. But believe me, I will kill you, and any other of your monsters I can get my hands on."

She wasn't laughing anymore; she looked angry, "Is that a threat?"

"No – that's a promise."

The guards were filtering in; Glasses didn't say anything for a moment, but as I was about to be led out with the others she gave me an especially hostile glare, "You will never get that chance. You are mine to do with as I please, just like all your little friends. None of you will _ever_ be able to get away from me."

It was my turn to laugh, "Found Lacy and Susan yet?"

She slapped me, which made me cackle louder, like a maniac.

"I'll take that as a 'No'!"

"Get them out of here! _NOW_!"

* * *

I thought they'd take us back to our room, but instead we found ourselves in the stands again, seated higher up than before; probably to keep us from being able to interfere, plus the fact that we had blown our previous seats to smithereens. They hooked our leg cuffs tight and secured them to the wall as well.

There were five more matches to watch, and after each one I found myself wishing I would be taken for the next round. I wanted to _hit_ something, I _needed_ to hit something, the anger, stress, and fear were all building up and begging to be released.

But no, at the end of the day all I got to do was sit there and watch.

I kept myself as disconnected from the link as I could, but of course they could still somewhat sense what I was feeling, and they kept trying to get me to re-connect. But I knew I'd probably lash out at them, so I kept to myself.

And they would probably want to talk about what had happened to Marvin, and I was just not up for that.

There were no deaths or other severe injuries, thankfully, and we were escorted back to the room. I could tell I was being watched, but my head was full of other things so I couldn't pinpoint how many or who it was staring at me.

I wasn't interrupted by anyone as I detached from the group and slid down the wall in a corner, pulling my knees to my chest and glaring at the floor. I wasn't sure whether I was more angry or upset, but when someone sat next to me a moment later I was fighting tears.

Tate didn't say anything, just put an arm around me, rubbing his thumb against my shoulder. Now I was starting to feel like a baby and the anger was making me tired – this was ridiculous,_ I'm_ ridiculous, I shouldn't be moping like this and ignoring them. Guess I was out of the 'I just want to be mad' mood now. Geez, my emotions were on a rollercoaster, and I was not enjoying it.

It took me a minute to be able to say anything, and even then my voice was tight and pitchy, "So – drew the short straw, huh?"

I tried to joke, but my attempt at a smile came out as a grimace. Tate opened his mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut and pulled me into a hug, pressing his cheek against mine. My face heated up and I froze, totally thrown for a loop as I had been expecting to be scolded.

"Don't even start down the 'It's my fault' road, all you did was try to protect him, and you did."

"How? Because of me all he could do was stand there!"

"Because of you he had forewarning – if he had been caught completely unawares he wouldn't have been able to block him at all."

"But-"

"Nah-ah, don't you give us that," Max ordered as he came to sit next to us.

I grew more self-conscious as I realized the others had been watching us.

"Did you notice that you're being stubborn about the same thing you got on to Tate for?" Wes asked with a smile from where he was leaning against the wall.

I frowned; I admit, I hadn't thought of that. Seeing as the others were joining in now, Tate released me from the hug and let me sit up, and Max took the opportunity to put his arm around my shoulders and pat me on the head. Their attitudes were kind of confusing me, so I asked,

"Why are you all so… chipper?"

Marvin could be dying for all we know, and they were all smiles and like 'no worries!' - it was weird, and it bothered me.

Tate shook his head at me with a small grin, "You really have totally disconnected yourself, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"So you're not doing it on purpose?" Donna asked.

"Doing what?"

"Meg, you've completely shut yourself off from – from the rest of us," Brandon said.

Wha-? I tested out my link connection. Oh. Well snap. Apparently I'd been so determined to keep my thoughts and feelings to myself that I'd unknowingly removed myself from the link entirely. No wonder none of them had been talking in my head – I was blocking them.

I tried opening myself back up, but it was harder than usual and they had to help me out.

*_Can you hear me now?_* came Max's voice, finally.

*_Loud and clear. So what does this have to do with you guys being all 'Tra la la la la la'?_*

*_It's called giddy relief because Marvin is okay._*

*_Wait, really?! How do you know? Did he talk to you guys?_* If I had missed that I was going to be supremely pissed at myself.

*_No but – but do you remember how it felt when… when Noah died?_* Wes asked hesitantly.

*_…yes…_* I answered slowly. That… numbness, the emptiness, was impossible to forget. Especially since it was still there whenever Noah came to mind; like now.

*_Well, we haven't gone through that again, so we know he's still alive._*

*_And if you concentrate hard enough you can tell he's there – it's weak, so we figure he's either unconscious or blocking._* Donna said excitedly.

*_And he doesn't have any reason to block, so we pick unconscious._* Brandon added.

Okay, that… wasn't so bad.

Tate squeezed my arm, "Just relax. As you say, everything will be alright."

"And you are allowed to lean on us when you get upset or are sad or… y'know. That's what we're here for," Donna reassured me, "No one's going to judge you for your feelings."

Now it was my turn to be shy as they all swarmed me with hugs – which really made me feel a whole lot better.

**A few hours later…**

Still nothing from Marvin. We kept positive by telling ourselves that while we weren't getting any good news from him, we weren't getting any bad news either, so… no news equal good news?

As far as we could tell he was the same, but searching for his link presence was getting more difficult, and gave me a sharp headache from the strain.

They brought food after a little while, but not enough; I think Glasses wanted us slower and weaker to keep us from being able to cause much more trouble.

Psh – not our fault people keep pissing us off.

We still hadn't fully recovered from being in Isolation, and with some food in us, exhaustion made us fall asleep sooner than we would have liked … though we didn't gather in our 'dog-pile'. It felt wrong with three of us missing…

* * *

_I was standing, surrounded by darkness. Then with a deep, heavy THOOM, dark orange lights flashed on all around me. I recognized the similarity to my other nightmares, but I wasn't so scared anymore. I hadn't had one in a while, so I was actually more curious to see how it would be different this time._

_The sudden Reaper blast still made me jump and a blurry figure shimmered to view in front of me. More blasts, each one preceding an entrance until I was in the center of a circle of the dark things, a tiny human amongst these giant… aliens._

_I couldn't tell what they actually looked like, their forms stayed blurry and kept shimmering and shifting, like shadows from a fire. But they all had the same glowing, fiery eyes that stared down at me. Feeling very small, I was getting scared again._

_I jumped when one of the aliens behind me spoke in a deep, grating boom:_

"_**IT IS TAKING TOO LONG."**_

"_**HOW CAN THIS PUNY CREATURE BE OF USE?" **__Another asked._

"_**LET US TAKE THIS ONE NOW AND BE DONE WITH IT." **__Said a third._

_I whirled to try and face each one as it spoke, but I couldn't tell for sure which one was talking._

_Then another answered, and this one I recognized – it was the very first, the one that had been the source of all my other nightmares._

"_**WE CANNOT. THE TIMING IS NOT YET OPPORTUNE. THIS ONE WILL SERVE US WHEN - "**_

"_This one is right here, y'know!" I yelled in annoyance._

_And immediately regretted it as they all turned their glowing eyes one me. Oh, oh that was a bad idea, a really bad idea, why did I pick now to start smarting off at all the bad guys…_

_But I made myself not hunker back, and faced the one from my nightmare, though I couldn't quite look it in the eye. _

_Its eyes narrowed on me and I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms. '_Don't show fear, don't show fear,'_ I kept telling myself. But I still found myself putting one foot behind me as if to turn and run; but it's not like I could run from this nightmare. _

_I had tried before. It doesn't work._

"_**THIS ONE WILL PROVE USEFUL. BUT IT SEEMS THAT THIS ONE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ITS PLACE."**_

_It reached a giant hand out towards me. _

_My fear broke out of my barrier and I did try to run, but my feet stuck to whatever surface I was standing on. The aliens flashed one by one and disappeared as something cold and then hot wrapped around me and I screamed as the creature's will bore down on me, crushing me, and the images flashed through my mind again – _

"Megan, wake up!"

* * *

Tate's voice cut through and I opened my eyes with a ragged gasp, looking around wildly, shaking and in a cold sweat.

I jerked back when Tate pushed my long bangs out of my face, still in panic mode.

"Hey, hey, easy – easy, it's alright Meg, it's okay."

His tone was soft and reassuring and I started to calm down as he pulled me against his side and laid my head on his shoulder, squeezing me to try and help me stop shaking. I sucked in a sharp breath and held it, closing my eyes; I shuddered once and let the breath out in a huff.

After a few minutes I stopped shaking and noticed that everyone else was still asleep. I must've woken him up or something. That was embarrassing.

"Megan are you okay?"

I looked up at him and back down, nodding, "Uh, yeah, I'm okay. Sorry, just – just a nightmare."

"One hell of a nightmare," he said skeptically.

"Yeah, I've been having some real doozies for… quite a while, actually. It sucks."

"I'll bet – do you remember any of them? I think talking about it can help."

"Nah, the only thing I really remember is that there's only one, and it keeps repeating. At first, anyway. I've been able to remember … parts of it, I think, and – and this last one was… different, somehow. I know that's kinda weird, but…"

"Yeah, well – dreams are weird anyway. You've been having these since _before _you got here?"

I nodded.

"Huh. I figured they were because of this place."

"Oh the Project is definitely nightmare-worthy, but my brain seems to have set priority on whatever this other stuff is."

My rueful tone made him chuckle.

"Sorry I woke you up," I apologized.

Tate shook his head and sighed, "I was already awake; I couldn't sleep long."

His tone made me frown; he still sounded tired, "Why not? Everything okay?" Okay as it can be right now, anyway…

"Yes… and no."

"Tate, stop being cryptic," I scolded.

That got me a brief smile before he slowly answered, "Marvin… has been moved. Beyond the link's range, we … we won't be able to reach him."

It took a minute for my poor, tired brain to process this unfortunate information.

"He's been moved."

"Yes."

"Out of link range."

"…Yes."

"We can't talk to him?"

"…No."

"Oh."

I think he was expecting more from me, because we just sat there in silence until I spoke up again, "How do you know? Maybe _you_ had a nightmare."

He gave a little laugh – '_aw, lookit I made him laugh WAIT! No, oh my God, I'm getting slap happy, focus girl' _– and he said:

"Much as I'd like that to be the case, no – he was heavily drugged, but came to consciousness long enough to communicate over the link for a few seconds; long enough to tell me he could feel himself being moved, though we were disconnected before he could tell me if he knew _where_ he was being taken. I tried reconnecting, but it seems once we reach the limit, that's it – there is no stretching, or pushing or leeway. Got a headache and a nosebleed for my efforts."

Ah yes, now I see the res flecks on the neck of his shirt. I pointed at them, "You missed a spot."

Startled, he looked down and then rolled his eyes at me, "Go back to sleep, you're clearly still exhausted."

Happy to oblige, I shrugged and slumped back against the wall, stretching my legs out. We could deal with this as a group in the 'morning'.


	14. Ch14: Last Match

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect.

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 14

* * *

_***LAST MATCH***_

Something tickled the bottom of my foot and I yelped as I kicked up, my foot smacking into something that yelled "OW!"

Curling my feet under me, I sat up and glared huffily at Max, who was holding a hand to his nose and scowling.

"Haven't you learned yet that tickling me is a sure-fire way of getting injured?" I snapped.

"Careful, your accent's showing."

I swatted him, "I'm still tired, so you can deal with it."

"He didn't think you'd be able to react as fast while sleeping," Donna explained with a grin.

Wes shook his head in amused disbelief, "I would've thought you'd have grown out of it by now, in here."

"I wish; it's a stinkin' curse."

"Yeah yeah yeah, moving on," Max said, waving his hand in the air, "Who thinks we're headed for the Arena today?"

"That's a no-brainer," Brandon muttered.

"We better be," Donna put in, her voice unusually hard, "I want a shot at that psycho."

"Are you crazy?!" Brandon exclaimed.

Donna looked insulted and was about to argue back, but Tate jumped in, "He's right – Marvin's twice your size, stronger, faster, and Alliance trained, and he could barely handle him. And you still aren't fully recovered from your implants getting half fried. Hashton would kill you."

"But if they match us up-" she pushed.

"Then you'd most likely be dead or broken," Wes said bluntly, "And I honestly doubt they would at the moment; they seem to at least _try_ to match skill levels."

Donna looked annoyed, but didn't argue further.

* * *

We did go to the Arena that day. And the next and the next; every day. And every day at least one of us, usually more, was sent out for a match.

They were all One-on-One's now, no more group matches.

Personally, I thought my first bout went rather well – I totally wiped the floor with the guy!

…And then the next day my new opponent wiped the floor with me. It was embarrassing, after a few minutes he let loose this massive Throw that punched right through my Barrier and into my face. I was knocked out instantly and unconscious for quite a while.

And I looked like a freakin' raccoon.

The others had similar experiences, though we did win more matches than we lost.

The lot of us had a couple of really bad days after we were cut off from Marvin, one reason being, well, we were cut off from Marvin. But another reason was because being cut off made us wonder about Lacy, and how she and Marvin felt being cut off, and then we went into a near-hysterical panic – Lacy was gone, therefore no longer receiving the Darwin Drug… and we needed that drug, we knew firsthand the consequences of not getting it.

She and Susan had been gone for days… we'd all thought we were saving them when we helped them get out, that they'd be okay, but had we inadvertently sentenced them to slow, painful deaths? Were they curled up somewhere, unable to move, unable to breathe? Or – or were they already gone, Lacy too far away for us to even sense her passing? Or had they been found and taken somewhere? Maybe by some miracle found by good guys who could help them? Or a cruel twist of fate that brought them back into Cerberus' hands… But no, that hadn't happened – not yet anyway.

"If they'd found them, dead _or_ alive, they would've come gloating about it, just like they would if Marvin… died," Max said confidently after our first day of worrying.

"But what if they - " Brandon started worriedly.

"Stop with the 'what ifs'," Wes cut in, "Listing them again isn't going to make us feel any better, and, I hate to say it, but it's not like we could do anything anyway. They're gone, and we're still stuck in here."

"Besides which, we don't actually _know_ they'll die, right?" Max said, trying to bring the mood back up, "They really might have found help; or the withdrawal could be a 'it gets worse before it gets better' deal."

"Max, you _died_," Donna replied, aghast at his flippant tone.

"I _almost_ died – and who knows, maybe I would've bounced back or something like-"

"As long as the implants are in, you need the drug, that's what he told you," Brandon said.

"Well – he could be wrong?"

"Let's just accept that we just don't know, and we're not going to know until we get out of here. It's safest not to make assumptions either way," Tate said.

"Okay, yeah… keep hope alive, but don't get our hopes up," Max agreed, happy to compromise.

Tate looked around Wes to where I was sitting against the wall, "Meg? You've been rather quiet."

Phooey.

"I'll try, but no guarantees – I'm a pessimistic worrywart. I can't help it." I tried to keep my voice neutral, but there was a definite pout to my answer. Dangit.

Tate shook his head and came to sit next to me – out of the corner of my eye I saw Donna grin and nudge at Brandon, and I frowned at them, feeling left out of some unknown loop – but then Tate made me look up at him.

"It's okay to think worst-case-scenario when you're trying to avoid it, but if you keep it up you're just going to get depressed, and you can't afford to be depressed. Okay?"

"I said I'll try – I'm just not real good at differentiating between 'keeping hope alive' and 'getting my hopes up'."

Tate looked exasperated, but Max clapped a hand on his shoulder, "That's probably the best you'll get for now buddy."

I pulled a face at the Soldier, but he just grinned at me before bouncing off to chat with Donna and Brandon. Tate was watching them curiously too, so I felt a little better knowing I wasn't the only one in the dark.

* * *

And we finally started seeing some results from whatever studies they were doing –over the next few weeks they fine-tuned our implants and drug intake to try and improve our performances. And the matches themselves helped us learn our strengths and weaknesses, and how to compensate and improvise, how to read the capabilities of others.

They seemed to be doing a kind of clean-up to improve the chances of the Subjects' survival in the Arena, because after al little while they had a day where they pitted all the psychos against one another, and they pretty much fought to the death until Hashton was the last one standing. So he was the only real menacing Subject left – while the rest of our opponents didn't want to be buddies, they weren't trying to kill us either.

But once they started the Cross-Class matches, people still died – five more suffered severe enough injuries that they were taken away, we assumed to be 'put down' as they call it, and another three died in the pit. None of it was on purpose, it was just… hard to adjust your fighting style to an opponent of a different skill set.

As for us… we pushed ourselves and took out our pent-up frustrations in our matches to try and keep ourselves sane. We were really careful, though, we knew when to stop and when to push, and after what had happened to Marvin none of us would turn our backs on our opponent even while being escorted back out of the Arena.

No one improved faster than Donna – she'd taken our earlier words to heart and seemed determined to take herself to the level where she could face Hashton. But she kept getting impatient, pulling risky moves to ensure a victory.

And the Cross-Class matches were… interesting. Techs could do both long and short range attacks with their shock and mechs; Soldiers were of course up close and personal; and Biotics tended to fight from a distance. Though there were those who liked to jump in close and use sheer Biotic force to blast their way to victory – like me. I prefer getting in people's faces, blasting them, and using my Biotics to then get out of range, like a hit and run.

My overall outlook had also improved over the past few weeks since we still hadn't had any news about either of our disconnected Cellmates. Again, no news is good news… for now.

* * *

I bounced on the balls of my feet, itching for the buzzer to sound. When it did I threw a bubble of a barrier around me and blasted forward to meet the Soldier's charge.

My Biotics exploded at the collision, my bubble popping and sending him sliding back on his feet, but didn't knock him down. Damn he had good balance.

His uniform was edged in black, tattoo marking him as Subject 3 of Cell 13. It'd be nice to have a chance to actually just _talk_ to these people for a change. My Biotic friend from his Cell had been injured and hadn't been in a match in a while, though he was in the stands, and I was getting worried –

No time for worries now, he was moving again, he ran at me but suddenly dropped into a roll as I tried to throw a blast at him. I spun around, trying to catch sight of him but he jump-flipped _over_ my head to suddenly land behind me and he whipped his hands out, grabbing the back of my shirt and flung me into the air.

My stomach flip-flopped but I gathered my Biotics around me and used them to hurtle myself downward, crashing into the floor next to him, finally succeeding in knocking him down. I immediately dashed over and a split second later realized he hadn't fallen – he'd put himself down to trick me! The sneaky - !

I tried diverting myself but got too close. He sprang up, tackling me and there was a confused tussle and a lot of bruising before he managed to pin me on my back, with his forearm on my throat and his other hand holding my arms above my head. His knee digging into my hip prevented me from kicking at him.

Yeah, I couldn't move.

And my Biotics were worn down so I couldn't just blast him off me. Well crap. I was really tired of them not giving us enough food to build our energy back up. This was just sad and annoying.

I let out a deep rush of breath, breathing hard as my adrenaline came down; I went limp. Fine. Whatever. He wins.

I looked up at him as we waited for them to figure out it was over and to ring the buzzer. Frustrated, I glared huffily at his grinning face, "What the heck was that dude? You jump around like a monkey."

His grin widened, "Acrobatics."

"Well duh but what are you? Circus geek?"

"Yep; the only one that tours throughout the galaxy," he answered jovially.

"Seriously? I was just kidding, but that's awesome."

"Seems to work for Soldiering pretty good; impressive power by the way."

"Uh, thanks. Need to refine it a bit more, I wear out too quick nowadays."

It was quiet for a moment and still they didn't let us go; I snorted when I saw that I'd made a bit of a crater in the floor from my last impact. And still no buzzer.

"Are they ever gonna sound it?" I asked with heavy exasperation.

"Feh – they're probably waiting for you to pull something."

"Bu –I would if I could _move_."

"Well, show them that you can't."

"Psh, by doing what? Twitching?"

"Oh just make some feeble attempt and then pretend to collapse or something."

"Bah. Okay, fine, 'feeble attempt' starting now," I said, rolling my eyes.

He chuckled and tightened his grip on my wrists, pushing his arm and knees in a little harder as I tried to jerk my arms out, or scooch just enough to get my legs able to get at him.

Nope, not happening. I slumped back onto the floor, "Ow. Your knees are hitting some nerves… and I can barely breathe. Game over, you win – congrats."

"Sorry," he said, easing up a little.

"Thanks-" I looked up in the stands when I caught a bit of the mood from my Cell and nearly laughed when I saw their faces; apparently they, especially the guys, were rather bothered by our position.

It made me grin, mainly because it was just ridiculous, but almost immediately stopped and tried to compose my face so Subject 3 wouldn't see. He would totally not get it and think I was being weird or something.

I glanced up at him real quick to see if he had noticed, but he wasn't looking at me – he was looking up to the opposite side of the stands and seemed to be suppressing a laugh himself. Then his eyes flashed down and he saw me looking at him; he gave me a 'What are you looking at?' look while I gave him a suspicious raise of my eyebrows.

"What were you just…?" I trailed off as I looked again to where he had been looking and saw the others of his Cell watching us.

No way. I stared at him, still trying to keep my expression guarded, "Can you guys…"

"No," he answered, too quickly. Then he eyed me suspiciously, "Can you?"

"Oh – no, no, I got no idea what you're, uh, talkin' about."

"Right. Uh, me either. Don't… know what you're getting at."

Talk about awkward. Yeesh.

Thankfully the buzzer sounded and when he didn't immediately get up I sighed, "Can you please just get off me now?"

"Wha – oh, right, sorry."

"Space case much?"

"At least I'm not a sore loser."

No guards came to get us cuz we were both pretty much fine, but the doors swished open and I got the last word in as we turned to leave:

"Please, if I was a sore loser you'd be flying right now."

I flashed my remaining Biotics around my arms to prove my point and then I skipped through my door. I looked back over my shoulder to see him roll his eyes at me before the doors closed.

*_What the heck was that?_* Brandon demanded.

I kept up my poker face as my escort came to take me back to my seat, but I let my surprise and irritation flow back as I responded: *_What the heck was what?_*

*_You, happily skipping along like you weren't just pinned to the floor by some pervert._* Max snorted.

*_Max, he's not a pervert, he just incapacitated me and kept me there so he would win the match, duh. And I for one appreciate not getting beat up all over again like usual._*

*_But you were all… chatty with him down there. It was weird that you got all buddy-buddy with him._* Brandon jumped back in.

*_I wasn't buddy-buddy! I just commented on his fighting style and we were both trying to figure out how to be like 'Hello! Match over! Buzz us out already!' And then I told him to get off of me._*

Their attitude was getting really annoying now.

*_You seemed like you were having fun._* Donna commented in a very nice, pleasant tone.

*_Thank you. And I was, actually._* I admitted. *_I mean, he wasn't trying to beat me up even once he had me pinned, so it wasn't bad at all, really._*

I took my seat next to Brandon and gave the guard an extra glare when he jerked my cuffs too hard; he totally did it on purpose. I fantasized kicking him all the way down the stands, but grudgingly resisted the urge to do so as he secured my ankle cuffs.

I had been in the third match of the day and the next two weren't total beat downs either. It looked like the day might actually end without anything horrific happening.

Then of course there was an incident with a Tech Class match and both had to be taken for emergency medical treatment when their mechs simultaneously exploded. That was pretty bad.

* * *

The VI finally announced that the final round would commence in five minutes. Donna sighed as the guards came to lead her out. At least we knew this match wouldn't take long – Donna had gotten very good at detecting and exploiting an opponent's weakness very quickly.

A few minutes later the doors opened; Donna stepped forward and froze. Of _course_ it was Hashton! Why wouldn't it be? He's only a psycho hell-bent on utterly destroying all those he fights, so what's the harm in letting him loose on a lower level Soldier with defective implants?

I was more than horrified – I was absolutely furious. There was no _way_ Donna could handle this guy, they had to know that, yet they… maybe it's because she was the first girl for him to face, maybe they thought by being smaller she could throw him off his guard? No…

This was Glasses, it had to be, the stupid –

This was the punishment she came up with? This is how she's getting back at us? Apparently she likes using Hashton as her tool – first Marvin, now Donna. Dammit, when I finally get my hands on her…

The match started and I got more annoyed when I realized Donna wasn't at all bothered by this. At first I was afraid she was gonna get cocky, but she didn't.

When Hashton charged after looking her over with raised eyebrows, she evaded… more easily than I thought she could. And again when he came at her, he had a longer reach so could hit more easily, but she was still able to get away in time to avoid not being taken down… then it hit me.

He was toying with her. Hashton wasn't taking her seriously at all, he was letting her get some hits in to egg her on and was just… playing with her. And she had figured that out and was… playing right back. She was clearly pissed, but didn't let it distract her.

That's why this match had none of the fierce intensity of his or Donna's previous ones. It was like a game of tag, the way they darted around and jumped back. Like with Marvin, Hashton started out with supreme cockiness as he toyed with Donna.

But he grew more frustrated and impatient as he realized she was toying with him too, keeping just out of reach, making him think he had her close enough, other times pretending to be slower and distracted.

This was good for covering the fact that her implants were still acting out; she kept blinking a lot or squinting, which were telltale signs that she was either dizzy or had that weird headache again. At least she didn't look like she was feeling 'wobbly'.

Hashton finally lost his temper at Donna's flippant attitude and with a roar of "YOU ASKED FOR IT!" he charged at her at full speed. But our Soldier was too quick and she evaded, dashing around the pit, trying to get behind him.

He reacted too quickly, spinning around to catch her around the waist and they both hit the floor. He tried to slam her down but she bit his arm and slipped away when he flinched.

Things escalated from there: she was just barely faster than Hashton, but thanks to the faulty implants her reaction time wasn't up to par. Once they got serious, it got scary. Hashton was pissed that she'd had the nerve to play with him – hypocrite – and Donna was doing her best to just keep out of reach.

The first time he caught her I nearly jumped out of my seat – I definitely tried, but they'd already seen fit to activate our inhibitors, and while that alone was not enough to incapacitate us, being tightly cuffed hand and foot and being zapped by a low shock from the cuffs all at the same time kept us in place. They had definitely taken more precautions which just proved my theory of Glasses doing this on purpose.

We had no leverage and there wasn't a damned thing we could do as Hashton threw Donna across the pit after kicking her in the face and breaking her nose.

She rolled and sprang to her feet to avoid his next charge and the psycho actually _bounced_ off the frickin' wall and went at her again. Donna faked him out and kneed him in the balls.

His face went even whiter – both pain and fury, I think – and he had to take a moment to suck it up, so Donna was able to put some distance between them and roundabout to come at him from behind. She did a handspring, planting her feet between his shoulders and shoving him to the floor face first, then springing off him to run away.

Good thing she did because he got up almost immediately and he was entering full psycho mode. Donna needed to end it, and soon.

* * *

_**DONNA**_

She needed to end this soon or she was dead; she could see it in his eyes. She took a deep breath and gave it a shot, but when they ran at each other Hashton suddenly dropped and swung his legs out in front of him, catching her left ankle with his feet and yanked.

Panic raced through her and she cried out in pain and fell, her ankle twisting and she landed hard on her right shoulder. Hashton leaned forward and grabbed the front of her shirt, yanking her and putting his face right in hers – the look in his eyes made her shrink back and shiver until he snarled;

"You're even more pathetic than that washed up excuse of a Major-"

Rage replaced the panic and pain and she spit in his face and jerked her foot free, trying to head-butt him.

But he laughed, slapping her across the face and threw her back as he got to his feet.

She gritted her teeth as she tried to get up, but couldn't put any weight on her throbbing ankle and her arm was hanging limp.

Hashton sneered, "You have lost, little girl! Just admit it and I will call an end to our little game!"

His loud taunt rang in her ears and she growled angrily, "Too chicken to get close enough to end it yourself? Wimp."

She knew she should just be quiet, pissing him off wasn't going to do her any favors, but she couldn't help it, this monster irritated her like no other… but it may have worked to mess with his head because he snapped back:

"Let's end it then! Come at me, _woman_!"

Donna sucked in a sharp breath as she ran at him again, trying to block the pain and keep the limp to a minimum. His face was twisted as he dashed forward at her; they both knew this was her last shot.

As they closed she pulled her left arm back, swinging her fist over her head in an arc, Hashton's face lit with a derisive laugh as he saw there was no way her fist was going to connect. She could feel the fear of those in the stands…

Then she abruptly switched tactics – using the momentum of her swing she threw her arms and upper body towards the floor, swinging her legs up and behind her and over, spinning midair and slamming her feet into his exposed throat as he looked at her in shock, knocking him backwards and to the floor.

She twisted away, kicking off to back flip and land next to him as his head hit the floor with a loud crack. He tried to get up but his arms couldn't do much but twitch, his eyes rolling in his head.

Still seeing red, Donna grabbed the front of his shirt, hauling him up as she pulled her injured right arm back to give him a finishing blow, he deserved it, she knew he did, her fist flew forward and –

Unbidden, images of Marvin's fight flashed through her mind, seeing him beat Hashton down, seeing him… walk away. Marvin wouldn't hit him when he was down. Marvin… wouldn't do this. He wouldn't do this, what would he think if she did?

She stopped, knuckles less than an inch from his face, her muscles tight and shaking. Grinding her teeth, she growled in frustration, sucking in a deep breath and held it, turning her head down, shoulders slumping as she looked back up at the other Soldier.

The rage is gone and shame has replaced it; she felt completely deflated and shook her head tiredly, letting Hashton drop back to the ground. She stared at him for a long moment before slowly backing away.

* * *

_**MEGAN**_

The five of us paced the room impatiently while we waited for the doctor to give Donna the all-clear and let her come back. She kept trying to reassure us that she was okay – her ankle was only sprained, her nose was set, and her right shoulder was severely bruised but nothing more.

That was all well and good, but we could feel the undercurrent of depression in her messages and that's what had us all worried, and what we were pestering her about.

*_Just tell us what's wrong! What's so hard about that?_* Max was pushing.

*_I've already told you, nothing is wrong!_*

*_And as we've told you – bull._* Brandon answered.

*_Insisting nothing is wrong while we can _feel_ your depression is pointless, and a bit stupid_* Wes said.

I could imagine Donna's defensive scowl as she answered *_Oh come on, I mean – okay, fine, I'm depressed, whatever – but I honestly can't figure out _why_ I'm depressed. I don't know what's wrong, so I can't tell you what's wrong._*

I had an idea, and started to offer it: *_Well maybe it's because - _* "OW!"

My whole body jerked, ears popping, in response to the sudden sharp, painful shock that zapped the back of my neck and ran through the rest of me like an electric current. Hunching in discomfort, I clapped my hands over the still-sensitive area and pressed down hard to try and make the now-buzzing nerves _stop._

The others had all gotten the same shock and I could hear Max still muttering swear words under his breath. Tate was looking around and grimacing, "Did everybody - ?"

He was cut off when the door opened.

We all stared.

We waited for the guards to come in, or to at least come into view. Nobody showed up. We looked at each other in confusion, and Brandon tiptoed to the doorway, sticking his head out.

"Anybody out here?" he whispered.

Then louder: "Hellooooo?"

Still nothing.

"Who's that?"

The hushed question brought the rest of us to the door and we peered out to see a young man sticking his head out of a room across the hall and a short ways ahead.

"Dude, what's going on?" Brandon called in a loud whisper.

Before the new guy could answer, a girl peeked from behind him, "Gary, what's - ?" She saw us and gasped, "Oh my gosh! You're Cell 21!"

"Uh…Yeah?" Brandon answered slowly, obviously confused. More people were poking their heads out to see who they were talking to.

"Sweet! Gary, it's Cell 21! Maybe they - !"

"Shut up Katie!" Gary hissed.

Too late.

"Down here! There's more!"


	15. Ch15: The Escape, Part 1

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect! I do claim all my OC's!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 15

* * *

**A/N: Hey peoples! Sorry for the delay, real life likes to get in the way of my fantasizing. This is a long chapter, the next one probably will be too. Hope you enjoy! And thank you for all the reviews! :D  
**

_***THE ESCAPE, part 1***_

The guard's alerting shout as he came around the corner ahead of us was answered by another: "What the f*** is going on this time?!"

There was only the two, though they quickly reported over their coms and called for backup. Then the two guards – clearly nervous, but not shooting on sight, thank God – stopped about ten feet from us, keeping their guns leveled on us.

"Please, just be cool, a'ight?" the voice of the second guard asked.

We just didn't know what was going on – a million possibilities (well, a few) were running wildly through my mind though – and we didn't really react except to stand there. Katie giggled and put her hands in the air, which made her Cell roll their eyes and us stare at her like she was crazy – which she might be.

Then a four-man squad ran in from behind us, took position just past the last door and opened fire.

Gary and Katie ducked back into their room and the rest of us – guards included – had to dive to the floor to avoid the first round. Brandon and I raised Barriers, the two guards were swearing at the other four, and Max charged the squad.

Before he got to them, two more Subjects came flying – literally, in the air – from that last room and tackled the two guards on the far side of the hall, so Max redirected to fully ram the other two.

We were about to run and help out when another _two_ squads showed up from the other direction, where the first two had run in from.

"Come on! We gotta help!" a woman's voice called further up the hall. Some of the new guards turned back at the yell and were met by a full nine-Subject Cell, which definitely helped even the odds out a little.

I was still mostly drained and couldn't do much until Max popped back up after lifting some weapons off the other squad. He tossed me a pistol and then I was at least able to distract the bad guys. I also noticed that the first two guards were nowhere in sight.

After a little while, some of the guards seemed to not appreciate the way thing were going, and different ones started running off, yelling things like "I don't get paid enough for this shit!" and "This wasn't in the job description!"

I personally thought it was hilarious, and my laughing while blasting away seemed to unnerve the remaining guards even more.

*_Donna, where are you?! What's going on?!_* Tate half-yelled from trying so hard to concentrate on the link and the fight.

*_Still in my room, on the Arena level; the doors opened and the doctors are keeping a group of their cronies in here to keep me from doing anything. I can't get out without getting shot!_* was her immediate reply.

*_Hang tight, we're coming to get you!_* Max answered.

We thought we were gonna be able to finish these guys off and be good, but no – even with some turning tail, we had to scatter and desert the hall as more kept coming. Our Cell was able to make for the stairs leading up, along with Gary and Katie's, but the four from the Cell down the hall had to go the opposite direction. The full Cell ended up getting split during the fight and only three of them were with us. They were understandably upset by this, but there was nothing we could do if we wanted to get out of there.

We had to find Donna.

We made it to the Arena level by blowing past a couple other squads with sheer force, and were aided by a Cell, a group of four, from the level above ours that ran up with us instead of staying in the hall to fight with the others on that level.

*_Any specifics to your location?!_* Tate urgently asked Donna.

*_I think I'm three doors down from - _*

She cut off abruptly and we felt her surprise and spike of fear before we were _all _cut off from each other by a sudden, piercing ache in our heads. The shrill whine drowned out all other noise and kept getting louder and higher.

I was seeing double as I was driven to my knees and I could see others dropping to the floor, too. My sight was covered with a reddish-grey haze as the whine became a banshee scream, twisting me forward, making me grip my head to keep it from exploding and opening my mouth so wide it hurt, thinking if I could just scream it out it would _stop._

The pitch popped sharply multiple times, my body went numb from the pain. And it stopped. It felt similar to the time a tv line I was standing next to had been struck by lightning, the going deaf and blind bit… only much, much worse. My head was spinning, I still couldn't see past the red haze, and my ears wouldn't stop ringing.

The first sound I heard – along with my ears ringing – was my own harsh breathing, amplified by the complete silence of everything else. I slowly became aware that I was on the ground, curled forward with my forehead pressing against the cold metal floor, arms wrapped around my head.

My throat was raw and it hurt. I guess I had been screaming but hadn't been able to hear myself.

More noise around me, muffled, but getting clearer. Slowly and carefully, my vision mostly cleared, I made myself pick my head up. Everything spun and fuzzed out for a moment but I closed my eyes and when I reopened them it was almost okay.

All of us were still on the floor, but it looked like everyone was alive and moving at least a little. Good.

Then I was able to register the yelling going on – we were surrounded by guards and their weapons were trained on us, and one kept gesturing for us to get up. I wanted to glare, but was still too tired and it took all my concentration to just focus on the guard. How did they _expect_ us to get up?

And what was all this anyway? We'd been letting ourselves hope against all odds that we could get out of here, that somehow this was our time to make an escape, but … was it all some kind of sick joke, a drill for the guards? To give them a clue how to handle another breakout? And now they had incapacitated us and were going to take us back to our rooms.

They'd totally messed with us and all of us had completely fallen for it…

Extreme anger – at them and myself – warred heavily with embarrassment and depression.

The guards' tone and movements became more agitated; I sucked in a deep breath, exhaled sharply, and decided to give getting up a shot. Maybe I could blast one of them before they took us away.

Bracing my forearms on the floor, I pushed myself back to sit on my feet. So far, so good. Concentrating hard, I put my hands flat on the floor next to my knees and rocked myself forward and up, almost falling over as my feet tried to twist onto their sides.

But a hand grabbed my upper arm and pulled me back, holding me up. When he didn't let go, I dizzily swiveled my head to see who it was.

It was a guard…it was Creeper. Hadn't seen him in a while…

"Where's the rest of your squad?" the yelling guard demanded.

Creeper looked over at him, keeping hold of my arm, "I assume they're a few passages down where I left them."

"We need to corral these Subjects – call them here."

"They're dealing with their own issues at the moment; besides, you don't really need them, do you? I mean, these Subjects don't look like they can even stand on their own."

And he let me go with a little push.

Still in extreme vertigo I wind-milled my arms but fell anyway – Tate managed to roll himself over so I landed on him instead of the floor. The guards were laughing at us, Tate hooked one arm around my waist to help me partially sit up with him and we looked up in alarm when we heard shots overhead.

We were all too confused to do much but stare as Creeper fired one shot after another at the other guards, headshots on all but using some type of ammo that only knocked them out and didn't penetrate their armor. The guards were so caught by surprise that most didn't get a chance to react.

Some Subjects tried to roll out of the way and others curled into balls, especially a few guards drew their guns to return fire.

Creeper – I had to call him that, I didn't know what else to call him – had to let his shields absorb a few shots to take out one guy, and a couple Subjects got smart and grabbed one guard by the ankles and flipped him backwards so he hit his head and got shot.

It was done in a matter of seconds, or under a minute at least, and we were all gawping at Creeper, relief mixed with disbelieving suspicion.

Creeper put his gun up with a contented sigh, "I've been wanting to do that for months."

I raised my hand slightly, "Uh, Creeper? What- ?"

I was interrupted by a small group of guards running up the hall and stumbling to a halt when they saw us. About half of them had a Subject slung over a shoulder.

They stared at us; we stared at them. Then I noticed Creeper slowly going for his gun and some of the new guys doing the same.

My head felt mostly cleared up as I clapped a hand on Creeper's knee, "Don't do it; I don't think they're bad guys."

Most everybody looked at me incredulously and a Tech said, "How can they _not_ be bad guys?! They've got some of us captive!"

One of the guards snorted, "Oh give us some credit, they can't walk any more than you can."

That's when the three Subjects decided to pick their heads up and look over their shoulders at us.

"Donna!" the five of us shouted when she turned around. She gave a feeble, rather embarrassed smile.

Her nose was taped and I pointed, "Ha ha! Now you look like a raccoon!"

She scrunched her face at me as her guard slid her off his shoulder and helped steady her. I, in my sudden rush of over-excited giddiness, tried to bounce from the floor to my feet, and while I did manage to get up, my whole body felt empty and wobbly and I would've fallen again if Creeper hadn't caught me.

"How are you able to stand so easy?" I asked Donna.

She shrugged, "I've been feeling wobbly for weeks; I'm used to it."

Good point.

The others were smarter than me and moved slower as they stood up. One guy asked, "What made you think they aren't bad guys?"

I had to think about it for a minute, "I dunno – they weren't attacking us, I guess. Just a hunch, really."

And that's all it really was – I wasn't 'feeling' anything from them. I was good at reading people before Project Darwin, and I was still good at it. They just hadn't given off any kind of hostile vibe, so I went with my gut.

One Soldier wasn't prepared to accept their 'Non-Bad-Guy' status, "You guys have been herding us like cattle for months and watching everything they've been doing to us – why help now?"

"Because now we can actually _do_ something and probably not get tossed out the air lock for it," Donna's guard answered.

"Everyone's running around like chickens with their heads cut off – nobody here knows what's going on, including the Project people. This is our best chance for an escape, too," another added.

"Any other guards trying to round up Subjects don't know what to do with them after since none of the rooms are secure anymore," said a third.

"So… this isn't some kind of trick?" Subject 5 of the nine-man Cell asked.

"Not as far as we can tell; like I said, _everyone_ is freaking out, including the doctors and big important boss people."

I shared a glance with the rest of my Cell, but we didn't say anything about Lacy. We didn't want to convince ourselves and be wrong.

"Yeah, and while all this chatting is cool, we really should -" another guard started, but was cut off when red lights flashed and an alarm blared and a woman's panicked voice called over the com:

"Unknown ship on approach! Repeat, unknown ship! Shut down protocols unresponsive! I re – Unknown ship has docked, the ship has docked! I repe -" Her frantic tirade cut off into garbled white noise.

Goosebumps crawled over my skin as the alarm went quiet, but the red lights continued to flash. I had a bad feeling about this.

"We need to get to the transports. There's one on the Personnel level below, we should be able to reach it with minimal trouble since most of the guards have been deployed to the research areas," Donna's guard suggested.

"Alright then, let's go!" Subject 8 of Gary's Cell encouraged.

"Wait!" Donna interrupted, "First you guys should probably… take your helmets off or something."

"Yeah, we won't be able to guarantee knowing who you are if we get in a fight," another Subject added.

The guards all looked at each other and back at us. We watched expectantly, raising eyebrows.

Creeper sighed, "Fine." And he pulled his helmet off.

It was much… weirder than I thought it would be to actually see their faces, to see the people. This totally humanized them for me, and I could tell from others' expressions that it did for them too. Creeper was a big black man who shaves his head. His looks fit the super deep voice, actually.

And maybe seeing their faces would help other Subjects trust them easier.

"Any of y'all know anything about this unknown ship that showed up?" I asked.

"No, but so long as they don't get in our way, I don't care," a guard with dark brown hair and blue eyes answered.

"Well come on then, if we all barrel through, then any opposition won't stand a chance," the other girl from Katie's Cell pushed excitedly.

But it turned out that only their Cell and the guards were totally on board with that idea.

"Okay, one – we just managed to stand up and I doubt anyone has recovered much, and two – we're still missing one, and we need to find him first," Max said.

"Well we got separated from the rest of our people, and we can't leave them behind," Subject 5 spoke up, the other two nodding in agreement.

"Us too," said one of the four from the Cell that joined us, the rest stepping up with him, "Oren got taken a few… days back and we need him with us."

"What make you think these people you're looking for are still alive?" Gary's Cellmate asked.

"We'd know if he was dead," Donna snapped.

The Subject raised his hands in surrender, "Alright, sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude."

Max went up and hugged Donna and brought her back to us.

"I would suggest you start going down a few levels past the third Cell level – that's where the restricted areas are for all but Dr. Thoen's 'associates', the 'insiders'," the tan guard advised, complete with air quotes, "They don't keep Subjects in any of the basic medical rooms for more than a day, so that's your best bet."

Tate nodded, "Thanks."

We and Cells 14 (Silver, 4) and 12 (Light Green, 3), along with the two other Subjects the guards had been carrying, headed back down, accompanied by three of the guards including Creeper. Still didn't get any names as we really didn't have the time.

The others decided to make the attempt for the Personnel hangar and our groups parted ways the next level down.

We very quickly ran into trouble after the others left, in the form of an all-out battle between worn-out Subjects with guns facing off against the guard patrols in a four-way hall junction. This level would be the worst cuz it was directly connected to Personnel.

We took a position behind the guards and before we did any shooting, one of our buddy-guards hollered, "Hey! If any of you dudes feel like switching sides, now's the time!"

He had to duck back behind the corner when they answered with bullets.

"Looks like you guys are still a minority!" Wes had to yell to be heard.

Once we joined the fight it didn't take long (there were 13 of us Subjects and 3 guards, I mean, they didn't stand a chance… though we had to take turns since wasn't room for us all to shoot at once). It did get a little confusing when one of Cell 11's Subjects shot at one of our guards. Luckily it whizzed by his head and hit the wall and Brandon had recovered enough to put up a brief Barrier while a couple of us hastily stepped forward to explain.

They grudgingly allowed the guards to stay and Brandon lowered his Barrier, though I think he regretted letting it down so soon when the facility's systems started shorting out and a series of mini-explosions scared all of us and the buzzing alarms started again.

I felt better when I felt my own Biotics beginning to recover. And I was glad to see my Cell 11 friend was okay, and she waved me over before our groups split up.

"You seen the 13's yet?" she asked.

"Not yet – why?"

"They were on our level too, I saw them last time. If you see'em, watch over our pal – he looked okay earlier but after this weird crap there's no telling."

"Agreed."

We nodded to one another and she ran after her Cell and 7 and 2. One of our lone Subjects was from Cell 2 and joined them, wishing us luck.

The alarms and flashing lights were very distracting and topping that with the electrical short outs and mini explosions that continued, it kept us on our toes.

My head kept spinning randomly and would feel like it was bobbing up and down on my shoulders.

One big thing had my Cell worried – we couldn't access the link at all, no matter how hard we concentrated. It was scary; and lonely too. There's a big difference between choosing to cut off, and _being cut off._

We hit the level under our original Cell level and were met with a storm of bullets. Our loner Subject (Cell 3, Orange) was hit in the shoulder and I dragged him to the side. We returned fire as best we could, but it was nearly impossible to see in this place – bad ventilation made it hazier than other areas and there was a lot of shouting, shooting and flashes of Biotics and Tech sparks.

It took too long – these guards seemed tougher somehow, fiercer, but the fight ended with a big explosion that popped panels off the wall and killed the last bad guys. The noise dwindled and the shouting stopped.

Breathing hard from having to use a Biotic punch on a charging guard, I stumbled forward with the rest into the large hall. It was the worst we'd seen so far; I'm pretty sure _all_ these guards were dead. And … too many of the Subjects were too. Any still alive were on the ground, not moving. I knelt next to one to see what color Cell he was.

Black. Cell 13. Oh my God…

I was shaking like a leaf as I turned the body over and felt for a pulse. Faint, but there. But this was a Tech, I needed to find a Biotic and a Soldier, they couldn't just be dead.

"This one's okay, can someone…?" I asked distractedly as I stood and made my way forward.

Cell 3's Subject made a small, panicked moan and ran ahead of me. One of the Cells in the hall was his. Brandon patted my shoulder as he went to help him look for survivors.

I heard a ragged cough and dropped to pull another 13 to a half-sitting position. He had a nasty gash on his forehead and electrical burns on his arm. I double-checked his tattoo to be sure and couldn't stop the relieved smile – it was Subject 9, my Biotic friend. He was alive.

He blinked blearily and squinted at me; recognition flickered and he tried to talk, but broke into a coughing fit again.

"Easy buddy," I soothed, squeezing his shoulder, "Can you stand?"

Sucking in a breath sharply, he nodded. He had to hold onto my arms and I half-pulled him up, but he did get on his feet, shaking and keeping a hand on my shoulder. I put an arm around his back for support.

There was a loud grating sound and one of the fallen wall panels was shoved to the side a short ways from us and two people crawled out from under it.

"Circus-Soldier dude!" I called out and the Soldier looked over curiously as he helped the other, a girl, over the panel. His face was tight and tired and he kept an arm around the girl and held her hand to keep her steady as they made their way to us.

When he saw who I had, he nearly collapsed in relief, pulling the Biotic away from me and into a hug, clapping him on the back. The girl looked all around, eyes huge and round. The acrobat looked back to me, "How many others-?"

I took a deep breath, "At least one more, a Tech, he'll be okay, I think, but …" I couldn't finish and looked down, trying to avoid looking at those who would not be getting back up.

The final body count was 8 of 18, and none of the survivors of the three Cells (13, 3, and 9) had gone unscathed.

Subject 9 was closing the eyes of another Cell member and the girl from his Cell, Subject 12, choked back a sob and the tears started streaking down her cheeks,

"This isn't right, they… they deserve a burial at least, isn't there anything…?"

Depressingly, there wasn't. There was absolutely nothing we could do for them, and we had to keep moving to find Marvin, but… we couldn't just leave these others here. Any more guards show up, they don't stand a chance. I gave Tate a helpless look. He rubbed the back of his neck as he looked around, assessing the situation.

"Were you able to learn anything from the system?" he asked.

One of the Techs shook his head, "It was completely inaccessible. I couldn't do anything."

Tate ran his hands into his hair and leaned his head back, closing his eyes with a frustrated sigh as he tried to figure out what to do, "Okay, here's what we're gonna do – we are _all_ going together, there's safety in numbers, and we have _got_ to keep an eye out for anything that may lead to a hangar or transport."

"If there's any transports left after this long," the lighter haired guard muttered.

Creeper smacked him on the back of the head, "There will be – these people won't abandon the station so easily."

We went down again.

* * *

_**HASHTON**_

His eyes darted restlessly as he stalked through the halls, fists constantly clenching and unclenching, breathing short and angry. He was fine – he was better than fine, because he was _better_.

That damned little girl may think she won, but she didn't. He'd merely gone too easy on her. A mistake he would not repeat. Now if only he could find her… She should be on this level, in one of those annoying little rooms the stupid doctors had tried to keep him confined in.

But they couldn't confine him. He didn't need _their _help, stupid doctors, weak doctors. Only the weak needed the help of the weak. He was strong, he was better.

And so when the doors had opened, he had shown them just how strong he was. His teeth bared in a smile at the memory and a tight laugh bubbled from his bruised throat. The stupid and the weak ran through the halls as he passed into the other side of the facility, but he ignored them. They were inferior and not worthy of his regard.

He needed to fight someone strong, to show them that he was strongest, that he _was _better. Then they would understand. He had not lost to that… _female_. He hadn't. He was strong, and women are weak.

Beginning to growl in his frustration, he rounded yet another corner, hoping to find _someone_ worthy, or perhaps a large enough band to give him sport…

He froze in wonder at the sight that met his eyes, at the magnificent, dominating creature at the end of the hall. Finally! A worthy opponent!

It was doing something with the terminal at the door, but when he grinned widely in maddened anticipation and laughed again as he charged, the creature looked over its shoulder, the strange blue eyes looking him over casually before it turned.

When he reached the creature it merely held one long arm out and caught him, wrapping its talons around his head to toss him to the side. Hashton was beyond delighted – defeating this creature would show them! They would see his strength, they all would!

He sprang back to his feet and tried to attack again, but the creature grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him up so his feet dangled above the floor. It looked him over with clear distaste.

"Since the systems appear to be inaccessible for the time being, perhaps you can answer my questions," it growled.

"I am not here to talk, monster! I am here to defeat you!" he announced.

"A pathetic little human such as yourself has no chance of defeating me – now tell me, what is this place? Who activated the distress call?" it demanded.

Now Hashton was becoming angry, "I do not have to tell you anything, monster! I am strong! I am better! I do not answer to you!"

"And how is it that you are stronger? Better? What goes on here? Who sent the distress call?" the creature pressed with a snarl, hauling him higher, glaring in his face.

Hashton tried to grab at the creature's hard face but it shook him; so then he tried hitting, kicking, anything, but his blows were ineffectual against its armor.

It shook him again, "If you do not provide me with more information, then I will have no further use for you, _human."_

"HA! What can I say? They brought us here to make us better! And I am BETTER!"

"If you're 'better', why would someone send a distress signal?"

"Bah! The weak do not appreciate what they have done for us! _I_ am strong!"

"Yes, so you have said…"

"Fight me monster! I will show you my strength, you'll see! I am stronger, better, than all others! _We are the future of humanity!_ I will defeat you creature! I am better than you!"

It sighed, "This is why I hate humans."

It threw Hashton to the floor and started to walk away , but the deranged Soldier had passed into his special attack mode and he roared and charged the creature again. He would win, he would defeat it, he was stronger!

It deflected him by swiping its claws out, raking them up his bare arm and shoved him back. Then the alien merely pulled a gun and shot him down.

* * *

_**MEGAN**_

Three levels down and I noticed they seemed to be getting smaller as we went. Tate was in the lead with Max and Creeper, and I was one taking up the rear; I'm not sure why, but I keep ending up in the back. Works for me though, I wouldn't want to be the leader.

We kept Cells 13, 3, and two of 9 in the middle for added protection from further injury, and Donna as well, but she kept more towards the front. Part of my job was to make sure none of the injured fell behind. That was not happening on my watch.

We came to a landing that only had one way out, through a double door that was totally wacked: it was barely open enough to allow one person through, and it was spitting sparks and making weird noises. Creeper insisted on going through first as a precaution and Tate followed, then Max, Donna, Acrobat and the girl still with him, and a handful of others.

13's Tech was about to squeeze through when there was a much bigger burst of sparks and then the whole door frame started shorting out – the doors slammed open and shut and stopped with only a few inches open, the area still zapping and sparking wildly.

Some of the wiring or something caught fire and the controls on our side exploded; one of the 14's who had pulled the Tech out of the way had to jump back and nursed his now-burnt arm against his chest.

I got as close as I could, "Tate? Tate!"

"I'm here, we're – we're okay!" He came into view, a few feet away from the doors, arms held up as sparks held him back.

"Can you get it open?" the last member of Cell 3 on our side asked desperately.

Tate shook his head jerkily, "It's totally fried, we'd have to open it manually, and it's too -"

There was another super-spark that made it up to the ceiling and I had to dodge a small panel swinging down. When I looked back I saw that the doors had completely closed up. We were shut off from the others, and the door system was only getting worse.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Cell 9's Subject 4, who hadn't said a word up to now, asked; she sounded absolutely terrified.

They all looked at me – why were they all looking at me? Even Wes and Brandon looked expectant. Crap.

I ran my hands through my hair as I tried to think, "Okay, we have to keep going. This isn't the only way through, we can find another door. We'll – we'll cover more ground split up anyway. We'll find a way to meet back up with them later."

I tried to sound positive and I think they all bought it…mostly. I just wasn't sure if we should keep looking for a way down, or if we should leave that to the others and look elsewhere. Maybe that would be better.

I took point as we ran back up the stairs and searched the level for another way down; we didn't find one, which kind of made my decision for me, but we did find a rather large doorway that led to another Personnel-like area. Apparently the 'important' doctors and scientists hadn't wanted to bunk with their goons.

There wasn't much damage here at all beyond the short outs and was eerily quiet, the alarms not quite so loud. The main corridor was lined with rooms, and at the end – stairs! Two way stairs, awesome!

We stayed close together but searched the rooms in three small groups, the Techs gleaning what they could from personal computers and we grabbed any datapads we found, shoving them in our belts and such. Though I had to be careful to not let anything jar the pouch tied to my belt.

I wanted to find _something_ that said these were Cerberus people, just so I could talk about them! But more study would have to wait for later. We checked the other rooms in the two smaller halls and I nearly had a heart attack when two people jumped out of a room and tried to run past us.

They were Subjects, 12 and 5 of Cell 20, who had been chased down here but had been able to hide so far, and they were relieved to join us. We had extra guns for back up and gave one to each.

Then we headed for the stairs; I swung around the corner and yelped in surprise at the patrol squad that was on the lower stairway level. A guard hauled me back into cover behind the short wall as they opened fire.

Our guards tried talking them down, but these guys weren't interested in talking. The dark haired one peered over the wall and ducked back down with a disgusted scoff:

"No wonder they're still shooting, those are true die-hard facility patrols!"

"How can you tell?" a 14 asked.

"The striations on their shoulder pads are different from ours!"

So we were dealing with real Cerberus troops now? That majorly sucks, especially if they're as bad as they were in the game…

Somebody from the level above us started shooting, the shots precise and the Cerberus troopers fell one by one. The twelve of us stared sown and we all looked up at the same time as the last one fell.

My jaw dropped and I thought my eyes might bug outta my head when I saw the Turian pull his weapon back and start down the stairs, watching us.

What in the name of all that's holy is _SAREN_ doing here?!


	16. Ch16: The Escape, part 2

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect, I claim my OCs!

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 16

_***THE ESCAPE, part 2***_

"And what is that supposed to mean?" the Turian growled.

Omagah… "Did I say that last bit out loud?" I whispered over my shoulder.

"Yep." Craaaap.

I looked back at Saren, "Well, I mean, you're – why're you…"

"You know who I am then?"

"Uhhh… yes – sir." Luckily the rational part of my brain was still in control of my mouth, because the rest if it was fizzled out as it tried to make sense of this, and it wasn't really succeeding:

What was _he_ doing here? What year was it? Is he Indoctrinated already? Oh my God, was that unknown ship _Sovereign_? Was there a frickin' _Reaper_ outside? Holy crap. Why? Why why _why?!_ Why me? Why Saren? Of all people, _Saren_? Was this the response we got from Tate's distress signal? The council got it and sent _Saren_ to check it out? Why couldn't they send – no wait, if Saren's still a Council Spectre, then the whole Eden Prime mess hadn't happened yet. Or he'd come from there to here and Shepard still wasn't a Spectre yet…

_Focus girl, focus on the task at hand! _But the crazy part of my brain was going totally fangirl on me – I mean come on, this is _Saren _here! The very first _real_ Mass Effect character I've met! And the first Turian! Turians are seriously bigger and scarier in real life. So cool, and yet rather terrifying. And yeah, he's the 'bad guy', he's crazy, but still, this was like BAM! – you really are here, this _is_ Mass Effect, those people really are out there somewhere.

And this was a definite timeline marker here, and it was the sudden insane urge to poke him to see if he was real that snapped me back to reality and I felt someone tugging on the back of my shirt.

"Do you mind telling_ us _who this Turian is?" the girl from 14 whispered.

"Saren Arterius, Council Spectre," Saren answered for himself. Subject 7 blushed – she hadn't realized he would be able to hear her. The Turian glared down at us, "Now would any of you be willing to offer information on who you are and what this place is?"

Wow, his voice was _exactly _like in the game, awesome! He was so –

"Because if not, I'd like to get the shooting over with and move on."

- Arrogant. And condescending. My fangirl bubble just popped.

"Uh, there'll be no need for the shooting," the light haired guard answered hurriedly.

"Thanks for shooting them, though," Brandon added hesitantly.

Saren's glowing blue eyes darted to the stairs, "I've noticed that the ones in armor aren't really interested in talking." His gaze moved back to us and settled on our two guards, who tensed, but didn't back away under his glare.

"Yeah, well, most of the ones in armor are blinded by all the money being thrown at them," I blurted out, hoping to keep us from getting in a shoot-out with him.

Of course now he was looking at me. This was so weird…

"What is this place? Who is behind this?" were his first questions.

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Uh… well they call this whole thing 'Project Darwin', but as to who 'they' are…"

"Not even we know," dark haired guard (okay, let's just call him Guard 1 and the other Guard 2) took up the answer, "Many of us were hired on under false pretenses of running security for a medical lab -"

" –But they never told us they were using live, unwilling human Subjects. And once you're in, the only way you get out is in a body bag or the airlock," Guard 2 finished.

"What exactly have 'they' been doing? What _is _Project Darwin?" Saren snapped.

Geez, we were being cooperative, why couldn't he just be nice?

"They named it after a human evolutionary scientist; they've been trying to push humanity's evolution forward, 'unlock the mysteries' of our genetic potential," Wes answered, "They organized us into experimental Classes – Techs, Soldiers, and Biotics."

Now the Spectre's interest was piqued, "And have they succeeded?" His tone was guarded; he may find this interesting, but I doubt he liked the idea of human evolutionary advancement.

Us Subjects looked at each other uneasily before I answered, "Sorta? We're not really sure, they're very close-mouthed about it. They don't share much with us Subjects."

"And what do you have to show for this… advancement?" he asked.

My special vibes hadn't returned yet, but his line of questioning and suddenly being so nice was creeping me out. Why didn't he just take the information we had and go? Or better yet, help us find our people and get out of here?

This was a waste of time, we needed to go; he could ask these questions _after_ we escaped. I decided to take a gamble and tell him as much:

"Well why don't you come with us and see for yourself? We've got people to find, and really need to get going."

I made to step around him and forced my pulse to stay normal when I heard the clicks of multiple guns being made ready. Oh boy. I looked over my shoulder – and directly down the barrel of a gun. It was hard not to go cross-eyed and totally impossible to stop my pulse from skyrocketing. And most of my group – all the guys anyway – had their weapons aimed at Saren. Testosterone at its best.

"Easy guys; and Mr. Spectre, we're not gonna stand around and chat while this place falls apart around us, or let ourselves get caught again. We need to move, and if you come with, we'll be more than happy to answer your questions and give you a demonstration or two. Trust me, we want these people to pay for what they've put us through."

"I'm not about to let you run off and disappear – I can't get anything off the systems, so you're coming with me."

"What?!"

"My job is to find out what is going on here and -"

"Are you not supposed to _help_ us in any way? It was a friggin' _distress call_!" Brandon exclaimed.

Saren's mandibles twitched irritably and pressed against his face, "My orders were to _investigate, _I was never told to _help _anyone." - Oh my God, what an asshole… - "And if you want to get grumpy about it, wouldn't you consider that getting you off this station _would _be helping you -"

"Not if you're forcing us to abandon the rest of our people!" the girl from 14 protested hotly.

"I've seen plenty make it to the transports -"

"Not the ones we're looking for. We _have_ to go _down_ to find them. And – look, do you have any idea how many Subjects were brought here? A lot died, but more survived and want to get _out_. We are not letting our friends get recaptured or left behind to die!" I snapped, my frustration breaking through, though part of me was freaking out over mouthing off to Saren and hoping he didn't just blast my head off.

I took a deep breath, "As I said before, we'll help you – if _you _help _us_."

I stared up at him, hoping my pounding heart came across as anger or adrenaline rather than fear, because he still had his gun in my face and he scared the crap out of me. Time was ticking but I didn't dare make a move, the tension was so high.

Then the alarms faded out and we heard clunky whirs from the hall and a few of the doors closed. My eyes widened and Wes actually swore, "We're running out of time again!"

Saren finally gave a frustrated snarl that made a few of the others jump, but the Turian lowered his gun.

"Get moving."

* * *

The first thing we told him as we went down the stairs was about the datapads and info we'd nabbed previous to the shoot-out. He insisted on scanning _everything _onto his omni-tool (a real omni-tool! Sweet!) and started to ask something when _mechs_ of all things showed up and started shooting. Since when do mechs roam the halls?

It didn't take but a moment to blast past them, but it was not a good sign. If they had regained enough system control to bring mechs out, then I feared it was only a matter of time before they tried shutting down our escape routes and locking us in the halls.

Turns out having a Turian Spectre with us did have its advantages – the next 'outsider' guards we came across didn't want anything to do with him and ran away, and the Cerberus cronies were a lot easier to handle.

The downside was he kept pressing for information, especially after getting his first display of our white Biotics and the Tech's abilities. He didn't seem too interested in the Soldiers, but I could tell he was analyzing all of us.

I also found myself watching him more than I should, it would be embarrassing to get caught, but I couldn't help it. The only other aliens I'd run into had been an Asari and a Batarian, and then each for only a short moment – I didn't really get to _observe_ them in any way, and the way Saren moved was just so _cool_. But he himself was so arrogant and pushy it grated on my nerves.

We had taken out one big squad of Cerberus guards when all the room doors started going nuts, opening and closing randomly and the flashing lights stopped. They were gaining more control of the systems; Saren realized this as well.

"I don't have time for this – we're changing direction _now_."

"No we are _NOT_!" Cell 3's Tech barked, and before Saren could do more than snarl and spin to face him, a rocket shot down the hall.

Some of us flattened ourselves against the wall while others dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way. The rocket exploded against the ceiling behind us and the alarms went off again. Dark smoke made us cough and those of us – namely me, Saren, Brandon, and the 14's – stumbled back as we saw the two heavy mechs lumbering towards us.

"Everybody back! Go down, _down!_" Wes yelled.

We had been trying to get out of Personnel, but it looked like those stairs were our only shot right now. The only cover we had up here was the sectional door frames.

Brownie points for Saren when he stayed in the back to help hold the heavies off so the injured could get away first, with Wes and a few others helping them. They had to dodge past exposed wiring and heat pockets popping as they crossed the unstable area the rocket had nearly destroyed.

Thankfully the mechs seemed to be out of rockets now, but they had plenty ammo left to make the retreat slow and dangerous. Brandon had one hand for shooting and the other was held out high as he strained to keep a Barrier up while Saren and I kept shooting. I had tried putting up a Barrier, but it was so shaky it didn't do much good. The three of us were bringing up the rear; almost everyone had made it across the danger zone.

And then the hall sectional doors started to close – just a few short spurts of movement and they stopped so I didn't panic yet, and it did make it easier for us to take cover. The heavies weren't very maneuverable, especially in these halls, and we got the closest one's shields and armor wore down enough to start doing some real damage, and I noticed the second turning to its right and started shooting at something or someone I couldn't see.

The doors slid closed another few inches and Guard 1 called a warning – we were about to be cut off from the others and the stairs.

"Pull back Brandon, we need to get behind this door!" I called over the noise.

He gave me a curt nod and had to quit shooting as he concentrated on maintaining the Barrier and walking backwards. I stayed where I was – I wasn't going to risk him getting stuck by himself in one section to be caught later.

The Barrier was straining him, I could tell. I pushed mine out to help him. He reached me and we both moved back, Saren yelling at us to hurry up. Why he didn't just go with the others I do not know. I was about to yell something snarky back when the mech switched tactics – turns out it wasn't all out of rockets after all.

It launched the missile right at us and Brandon did something very … stupid. I know it was just reflexes, but he pulled the energy in his Barrier and threw it at the rocket. I think he was trying to divert it or something, but it exploded on impact and the blast was amplified by the Biotics.

I was blinded by the explosion and tossed back like a rag doll. I felt myself slam against something and a sharp pain in my left side and I fell forward on my face. I lay there for a moment, stunned, and dizzily pushed my upper body up to look around.

The whole level was a disaster – God I hope the others are okay – and the one heavy mech was half blown away; metal panels were hanging from the ceiling and off the walls, littering the walk way. My ears were ringing again and everything was a little blurry.

I wiped blood of my mouth – I don't know if it was a cut or I'd bit myself – and spotting Brandon curled against the wall, farther up the hall, with his arms over his head I forced myself to stand. My legs were shaking and I blinked when something dripped in my eye.

"Brandon! You okay?" I called, my voice croaking.

He dropped his arms and looked at me, nodding mutely. He looked totally freaked out. My protective instincts kicked in on high and I tried to step over a debris pile, but the floor actually _shifted_, dangerously, underneath my feet and I froze, trying to scan for the safest way over.

"H-hold up, I'm coming. Don't try it, okay?" Brandon warned, his voice shaking a little.

He was on his feet, but he too was scuffed up pretty bad. He took a few steps and the whole level shook again as the sectional doors jerked again.

My pulse jumped into overdrive, "Brandon, hurry! I'll meet you halfway and -"

_Shit_ the other mech was still functioning, I could see it moving behind the smoke! Pressing my lips together, I hopped over the pile of metal – but something grabbed me from behind and yanked me back.

My feet banged against hot metal and then again as Saren dragged me past the half-closed door.

"_You sonofabitch what the HELL do you think you're doing_?!" I screeched, trying to jerk away. His talons were wrapped around my right arm in a death-grip and my arm was going numb.

Brandon was yelling angrily at the Turian to let me go and stumbling from suddenly moving too fast. Shots from the other end of the hall made Brandon duck down and Saren took me to the floor with him as he dove to the floor.

I took the opportunity to twist – my muscles screaming horribly – and wrench my arm out of his grasp. I heard him snarl but I threw myself forward, my vision still annoyingly blurry, not caring about the bullets flying at me. I could see Brandon trying to reach me but his foot was caught or hurt or something, he couldn't move.

I never made it through the doors as Saren hooked his claws in my belt.

I threw my arm out, reaching desperately, struggling, "Brandon! _Brandon_! LET ME _GO_!"

Brandon's anguished look of panic was the last I saw of him as Saren put a clawed hand over my face and pulled me back as the doors closed with a grating crunch.

An enraged, terrified cry ripped out of my throat and my Biotics reacted, blasting Saren off me. I threw myself at the doors, hitting them, screaming at them to open, clawing at the miniscule crack – I had to get to Brandon!

I heard Saren growl before he grabbed at me again, "Quit being stupid and -"

"You're the one being stupid, _Stupid!_ Brandon's still alive, I can still save him, I'm not leaving him behind! You can't make me!" I snapped back, Biotic energy popping in the air around me as my anger escalated. Why, _WHY_ were they suddenly so much more volatile?! Why couldn't they have reacted just a few seconds earlier when I needed them!

The Turian made a noise of disgust and grabbed my left arm; I jerked away and rounded on him, bringing my arms up to blast him to kingdom come.

Another explosion rocked the level and the damaged floor gave way under my feet. I tumbled down the hanging panel and landed hard on my side, rolling out of the way as debris dropped down through the hole. I scrambled to my feet and looked up – the area where Brandon was hadn't fallen through, maybe if I could get to the stairs –

Saren was suddenly in front of me as I turned and he slammed his armored forearm into my face, giving me a bloody nose and making me stumble back.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he barked, pulling his arm up again.

I flared my Biotics and shot back, "What the hell is wrong with _you_, ya damned Turian?! Why did you do that?!"

"I told you I wasn't going to let all of you get away!"

"You could've had me AND Brandon, but now he's trapped and it's _YOUR FAULT_!"

And I threw a Biotic missile at him; he dodged it so it only clipped his shoulder and with a wild, venomous hiss I jumped on him. My judgment was severely impaired to do this and I was pinned in a matter of seconds, Saren slamming me down on my back.

"And just what did you think _that_ was going to accomplish?" he sneered pompously.

"I figured beating you to a bloody pulp would be quite the accomplishment," I snapped.

He actually laughed at me, "With that arm?"

"The hell are you - ?" I turned and looked at my right arm. Holy shit. "What in hell did you do to my arm?!"

"You're the one who pulled away, I was just trying to keep a grip on you."

His talons had sliced three long, curving slashes into my arm, starting under my tattoo and twisting around and ending at my wrist, the tip of one gash ending on the back of my hand and another warping the last two characters of my Subject number. And my whole arm was a red, bloody mess.

I suddenly felt very, very sick. How in heck had I not felt that? Of course I felt it now that I see it, and the sharp, burning pain turned my stomach. Damned, effing Turian…

"Why couldn't you just leave? You have the information!" I jerked my head to indicate his omni-tool.

The ass snorted, "I haven't had time to analyze any of it – there's no telling if it's in code or encrypted or just completely useless."

"So, what, I'm _insurance_? How does that work I don't know anything!"

"Better than nothing, now let's go."

I didn't respond so he yanked me to my feet.

"Now we need to find a way to get back up to my ship. Follow me," he ordered.

I kept a deadpan stare on him as he walked around me and towards the staircase. Then I scanned the area again, keeping my right arm curled around my waist and pressing against the still-stinging pain in my side. After a moment Saren noticed I hadn't followed and turned to face me; I glared defiantly, still thinking about what I was going to do…

He was hissing as he stalked forward, "I grow tired of your insolence -"

He stopped when I directed the remainder of my Biotic energy into a giant, pulsing bubble around me.

Saren narrowed his eyes, "Don't even think about it."

"A bit late for that, Stupid. Now I'm giving you a choice: keep going, and leave. Now. There's not a snowball's chance in hell of me going _anywhere_ with you after what you did."

He was getting more and more pissed, but I didn't give a flying fig. The only reason he didn't just charge me now was because my unstable Biotics were making him pause.

"Didn't you say I had a choice?" he pointed out sarcastically.

"Your other choice – if you _don't_ leave, then I am going to unleash all of this energy in one big, uncontrolled burst, and see what happens."

He scoffed, "That's it?"

"Just thought I'd give you fair warning." I kept my voice calm and rather monotone, but I was getting too close to blowing him away whether he left or not, and I doubted he would, consequences to the whole 'Saren-is-a-Reaper-puppet' thing be damned.

The Turian Spectre snarled, "Do you really think I'm just going to walk away from this? You. Are coming. With _me_."

And his gun unfolded in his hand.

"Whatever. You had your chance," I muttered, figuring his Turian ears would still hear me.

I released the bubble as he brought the gun up. The walls and floor cracked and popped, wiring and lights blew and Saren was slammed against the far wall, crumpling to the floor.

Gasping for breath, I fell to my knees, one hand on the floor for support as I tried to breathe properly. Crap, this was bad, I could barely see straight. That had taken more out of me than I thought it would, especially added with Saren's crack on my head. It was bleeding again.

Saren coughed and shook his head, trying to get back up. I had nothing at the moment and no idea if I could recharge any time soon. Where was my gun?!

He leveled a predatory glare on me and sick terror raced through me as he got to his feet – and stumbled, falling to the floor, clearly more disoriented than I was. I shook with relief as I sat myself on the ground and started scooting backwards away from him; maybe I could still get away.

After a few feet I pushed myself up, swearing to myself at the sudden headache that seemed to explode inside my skull. Probably a result of overtaxing myself. I could deal with it for now. I nearly fell multiple times but made it to the end of the hall – Saren still hadn't caught up. He wasn't even able to keep on his feet yet, though not from lack of trying.

He put a hand to his head and shook it again. Right as he did that my head pounded, it felt like something in there was stretching or – oh my God, _what_?! I was starting to feel… stuff, emotions, not mine but someone else's: anger, frustration, and something that felt_ sick_…

NO! No No _NO_! I AM NOT LINKNING WITH SAREN! NEVER! EVER EVER EVER, OH MY GOD!

Panic and, well, total shock, gave me a second wind and I bolted into a connecting passage and just _RAN._ I didn't pay any attention to where I was going and didn't slow down until I was alone in my head again. I staggered to lean against a wall, right arm still around my waist. Luckily, I guess, it had gone numb… or maybe that was not so lucky. Dangit.

I was hoping to be able to catch my breath for a second, maybe rip off some cloth to wrap at least some of my arm, but I heard footsteps, heavy, fast-moving footsteps – somewhere behind me. My link-sense had indeed started to return, but it was off kilter and all I could sense about the person was their hostility. I didn't know if it was Saren or not, but I wasn't going to wait to find out.

So I ran again.

* * *

Alright, I had no idea where I was. I'd gone up, down, and all around, but Saren managed to keep just close enough to know where I had gone. And I knew it was Saren now, I recognized that… sickness in his mind from before. My head wasn't trying to link anymore, hallelujah – it seemed to recognize the Turian as a threat to be avoided.

I wasn't in a Personnel area anymore, it looked more like a regular passageway; totally empty. I peeked through another half-closed door and into a corridor with doors lining the walls and – a stairway! Yes! I darted through the opening and was maybe a quarter down the hall when I heard a _lot_ of footsteps running up the stairway.

Cursing silently I hit the panel on the closest door and ran into the room to hide – and tripped over somebody else. We both let out surprised squawks – it was a girl – and I hit the floor with an 'Oof!'. We didn't have time to do more than look at each other before the yelling in the hall scared us into scrambling behind a medical table (I launched myself over it while she went around). This looked like an experimentation room, ugh.

Guess Saren had met up with some patrols, and a firefight commenced. Silence a few minutes later. The other girl (a Tech, turqoise colored Cell, Subject 13) peered over the table and frowned at the door. I realized I had been holding my breath and let it out slowly, doing my best to keep quiet.

I could still sense Saren out there, but after a long few minutes he left.

My new companion was still staring adamantly at the door, waiting for someone to barge in.

"I think they're gone," I whispered.

She jumped, her super-curly mass of red hair bouncing, and looked down at me, "How can you be sure?" Her hushed tone was tinged with understandable doubt. I noted she had a strong Irish accent.

"Er – I can't be 100%, but we can't stay in here forever, right?"

"Agreed ; let me get the door and – Bloody Hell, what happened to your arm?!"

I grimaced as the gashes throbbed. Spring-boarding over the table had been quite stupid. Before I could really answer her, she was darting around the room and rifling through drawers and cabinets. I got up and walked over to her.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Seeing if there's actually any medi-gel in here, and bandages. We need to get that wrapped or it'll get infected."

I helped her look and found a roll of bandages and medical tape, but no medi-gel. I was disappointed, not only because my arm freakin' hurt but because I was _really_ curious to see some and how it worked!

Subject 13 – she told me her name was Adria – was unhappy as well, but after wrapping up my entire arm and taping a bandage across my forehead, we cautiously re-entered the hall. No living guards or Turian in sight and I wasn't sensing anybody, so we made for the stairs again.

Tripping over Adria turned out to be a real stroke of luck because she knew exactly where we needed to go: the dead patrol guys had been chasing her after the rest of her Cell helped her escape.

"We were being taken to a transport so they could relocate us to another facility or something and with me being the only girl left, the guys concocted a way for me to escape. Long story short, they went berserk for a distraction and I ran like a bat out of hell."

She'd been running around much the same as I had before they were able to get close enough to drive her into hiding in the room. She had been there for only a few minutes when I showed up.

I didn't know if Saren had used the stairway or not, so we went as fast as we could while being as sneaky as we could. But my link sense was still wonky, and Saren _is_ a Spectre.

We'd just reached the area Adria had last seen her Cell when the Turian seemed to appear out of thin air back the way we had come. His malevolent glare promised death and we tripped over ourselves running away.

Didn't get very far before bursting into a corridor that was filled with guards and people in lab coats and those black outfits; Adria and I had to swallow surprised yelps and skidded to a stop, Adria grabbing my arm (my _right_ arm) and I bit my busted lip to keep from screaming as she pulled me into a small opening that led to a door.

Everyone in the hall was being lectured so had their eyes fixed on – her. Bitch Queen herself was actually here, just down the hall, and was reprimanding all those present for the amount of Subjects and defectors that had managed to get away, especially the groups that had come through here to reach the lowermost transport bay.

So this was some sort of stakeout to catch anymore trying to get through. Dammit, how were we supposed to get around this many of them? And come on, how can there be this many left after all this?!

I peeked out, and as far as I could tell they were ALL Cerberus people, no 'outsiders' present. I briefly wondered why Saren hadn't popped out by now and figured he heard them or something and was 'evaluating' the situation. My eyes moved again to Glasses… maybe I could work this to our advantage.

They were all still being berated so before Adria could stop me, I ducked out of the alcove and around the corner, nearly smacking into Saren. Shit!

He growled evilly and wrapped his claws around my throat but I blurted in a harsh whisper, "The Boss is in there!"

He paused, "What do you mean?"

"You – you want info right? For your investigation? Right? So, uh, the bitch talking, wearing the glasses, she's the one in charge, the mastermind of this whole… shebang. And she can take you to _her_ big boss dude," I rambled desperately, needing him to loosen his grip or I was going to pass out.

He was definitely interested but still looked ready to kill me. His eyes darted to the hall and back to me, frustrated over wanting to do his job and the desire to rip my face off. Thank God his Spectre duties won out and he released my throat.

"So how do I go about appropriating the woman while she's surrounded by her patrols?"

I was rubbing my sore throat, "How should I know? You're the Spectre, you think of something."

My answer pissed him off yet again of course and this time he grabbed the front of my shirt, yanking me towards him. But shouts of alarm from the hall were followed by gunfire. Saren and I looked around the corner – the guards were shooting at the ceiling… and the ceiling was shooting back. There were small turrets in this place? Sweet.

But why were they shooting at each other? Oh! Adria's a Tech, maybe she hacked them! Or somebody else did. I raised my eyebrows at Saren:

"Well? Think the almighty Turian Spectre can handle it now?"

He lashed forward, snapping his razor-sharp teeth less than an inch from my nose. I squawked and fell back on my butt. Oh my God, oh my God, that was NOT cool! Holy crap. Calm down, deep breaths.

And he was gone, surging through the hall and I could hear Cerberus people cursing and yelling. I looked in time to see Glasses' shock and her turn tail and run, fleeing up a ramp to another level of the floor. And Saren was right behind her.

I know I promised I would kill her, but I never said _how_ I would kill her, and it's not like I could do much in my current condition. And I just sicced Saren on Glasses – HA! Now if I could just stop shaking and get up, I'd be doin' great.

"Well what have we here," a nasty voice sneered overhead.

Startled, I looked up to see a man in black leaning around the corner. He must've been checking if there were any others besides Saren. Crap. I was still trying to get my scaredy-cat muscles to move when the creepy guy reached down with something needle-like in hand – and jerked twice and fell as someone shot him in the back. Who…?

Guard 1, the dark haired guy from before!

"Duuuude," was all I was able to get out as I nearly collapsed in relief.

He gave me a brief smile, "Nice to see you still in one piece; mostly, anyway."

He helped me to my feet – a little awkward as he had to grab my left arm, which was still holding the pistol – and he kept me behind him as we ducked into the small opening I had hidden in with Adria. But Adria wasn't there.

I thought that was odd but I had to ask: "Where's everybody else? Did you guys find the others?"

He was hesitant to answer, "We never did run into the others, but the rest of our group made it out – I was separated at the hangar bay and made sure they kept going."

"How'd you get separated?" I asked, concerned that Wes or someone might have been hurt. Again.

He nodded at the guards in the hall who were still dealing with the turrets and a round of mechs that had wandered in, "These guys showed up." He looked at me carefully, "Where is..?"

I blanked my expression and didn't answer; he was smart and just nodded. We both jumped as the door behind us opened and Adria let out a startled cry at seeing me standing there with an unmasked guard. Thankfully she didn't try to shoot him or anything.

"What were you doing in there?" I asked, curious. I mean duh she was hiding, but still…

She had been watching Guard 1 warily but cracked a grin at me, "Oh, just a little hacking in hopes of evening the odds."

"Nice one," I said, almost giving her a hi-five, but then we both looked at my raised right arm and decided to not.

We gave the hacked turrets a hand, shooting down any guards that came into range of our hiding place and once we were fairly certain we had a chance of making a run for it, we did. The facility was now in almost full control of Glasses' people who handled that kind of thing, and patrols had proven to be more organized than at the beginning – if we didn't go now, we might not be able to go at all.

Especially if Glasses managed to elude Saren – he may be a Turian Spectre, but this _is_ her facility after all. No telling what would happen.

Guard 1 took the lead and Adria took up rear position, leaving me in the middle now. Shooting with my left hand was even worse than the first time I had picked up a gun, but that actually served to make it harder for the bad guys to determine where the bullets were actually going to go. And Guard 1 and Adria were both brilliant marksmen, so they were able to get us through the hall and past another set of big doors.

I had a sudden, horrid flashback to the last time I'd been this close –Noah falling, dying... I squeezed my eyes closed and did my best to focus. I couldn't let that happen here too. Too many had died already, I wasn't going to let these monsters have any more!

My companions were surprised at my sudden outburst of gunfire as I swapped to using both my hands to fire. We were getting past these guys, we were getting on that ship, and we were getting the hell out of here.

There was a patrol in the way when we rushed through the last door – the shuttle was right there, I could see it, it was _right there!_ But how to get past, we had more coming up behind, and I knew at least my gun kept getting way too close to overheating.

Adria suddenly ran forward with a shout of "Cover me!" and we did as she reached a terminal on the far wall and slapped her hand on it, sending a huge wave of electricity into the system, overloading it. Sparks flew all over the huge room, the doors slammed shut behind us and three of the patrol guards were fried by zapping bolts that shot out from the terminal.

Guard 1 ran over and caught Adria as she collapsed and I took down one more guard. The last one left still refused to give up, he kept coming, kept shooting, but there was no way he stood a chance – Guard 1 took him down by throwing Adria's gun at him and hitting him in the head, distracting him so I could get in the final shot.

They were all dead – the three of us looked at each other in disbelief and then made for the last shuttle available. We could hear others trying to get the doors open, but they got zapped every time they touched it. They were about to try a grenade type thing, I think, but they wouldn't be able to get it open before we took off.

_Before we took off…_ it was really just a shuttle, but it was also the very first spaceship I have ever seen and I was just hopping right in, not letting myself think about the fact that we were about to take off into the dark, vast, emptiness of outer space…

Okay I was thinking about it, must stop or I _will_ lose my mind and get uber freaked out. There would be time to marvel and geek out later, so I kept my mouth shut as Guard 1 took the pilot's seat and Adria and I strapped ourselves in on the bench behind him.

We took off seconds later, as soon as the bay doors opened wide enough.

My stomach dropped and lurched, I gripped the edge of the bench and squeezed my eyes closed. Oooohhh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! This was way beyond –

"Megan! Look outside!" Adria said excitedly.

_NO_! I wanted to scream, but I did anyway, slowly peeking my eyes open. Seeing outer space made me kind of really dizzy, but I immediately spotted what she was so excited about – from a side window I could see what could only be the Project Darwin facility, and the… giant, whoa-big planet it was orbiting.

And they were getting smaller and smaller as we watched, disappearing, and we couldn't spot any ship coming after us, not even the 'unknown' ship of Saren! I could feel a huge grin stretching across my face as I turned back to Adria, and she had a matching expression of wonder, disbelief, and incredulous victory.

Our guard was grinning at our sudden giddiness as we started cackling and cheering, not sure if the tears on our faces were from joy of the escape or the pain of those lost and fates unknown, or a confusing, amazing mixture of all of it.

We'd done it – we were out, we escaped, we were _free_.


	17. Ch17: 2181 Eubolos

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect! BioWare owns all, I just claim my OCs

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 17

* * *

**A/N: Hey readers! Wanted to say thank you so much for sticking with my story and for all of the reviews, faves, and alerts you have given me! They make me so happy! I love hearing back from you guys, and I hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

*****_**2181 Eubolos**_*****

The facility stayed out of sight for now as we settled into an orbit around the huge planet while our guard tried to figure out where we were and where we could go next.

I was completely in awe as I looked at the planet from where I sat – it was absolutely amazing, kind of reminding me of Jupiter but way more colorful: it swirled with a mixture of dark and pinky reds and a vibrant grey-green-aqua kind of color, and it appeared to have massive rings, but from here I couldn't get a real good view of them.

"So where are we exactly Guard-dude?" I asked.

He had pulled up a map and was about to answer when Adria interrupted, "Okay you need to tell me your name, I refuse to call you 'Guard-dude'."

He laughed, "Edward Moren, at your service."

"Alright then Eddie, where are we?" the Tech asked brightly.

I frowned – she was pretending to be cheery, but I could feel the anguish and grief she was trying to suppress. And it was making it that much harder for me to suppress my own. I looked up at the really cool digital map of the galaxy to distract myself.

Eddie tapped two fingers against the hologram, "We are currently here, orbiting… 2181 Eubolos, the third planet in the Psi Tophet system of… Sigurd's Cradle. Huh – this system looks to be fairly new. No real exploring going on anywhere right now."

"Perfect place for a secret, inhumane research station," Adria said bitterly.

Eddie shifted uncomfortably and, hoping to keep this from getting too terribly awkward, I asked, "Where are we headed now?"

"Uh - " he fiddled with the map some more, "This moon for now, I think; keeps us out of the facility's sights for a while."

Sounded good.

We were landing on a moon.

Sounded weird, too.

Now I really took the time to look outside – I figured since the shuttle hadn't blown up yet or crashed into anything I could set my paranoia to rest for a while.

An incredulous grin spread across my face. This was unbelievable – the thousands of stars off in the distance, a scattering of quite a lot of moons actually (I checked on the map and tried to spot them all), and then the planet… And those rings! I mean, they were just too awesome and just… wow.

I never would have believed I'd actually get to see something like this in my _life_.

Eddie chuckled at me as I stuck my neck out trying to see everything all at one, "You'd think this was your first time out in space."

"It is," I answered off-hand.

"Wha- seriously?" was his response.

"You've been land-bound your whole life?" Adria asked in surprise.

Oh snap, I really should keep my mouth shut, now I've gotta think up an answer that actually makes sense…

"Well I mean, yeah, I've never actually left Earth before, and even there I didn't go out of country or whatever, just did some minor travelling in the -" ack, what did they call the States now? "- the United North American States." I think that's it… "I've never ben beyond Earth's atmosphere before, so yeah, this is my first time really in outer space and -"

I stopped talking, hearing my voice getting more and more strained and tense as I spoke and my throat was very tight. Running my good hand through my hair, I stepped back, swallowing to try and loosen my throat. Why was I feeling so light-headed all of a sudden? And why was I shaking?

The other two looked fine; maybe it was because this is my first time on a spaceship.

The touch on my arm made me jump a little and Adria frowned, "You need to sit down. I'm gonna go raid the medical supplies."

Eddie looked concerned as he watched us leave the cockpit and I wondered how bad I looked. But Adria's last comment made me think my wooziness might be from the blood loss or pain, or maybe I was going into shock, or coming out of it or something. I can't really tell the difference, I'm not fully sure what 'shock' is, medically speaking.

And now my brain is babbling to itself. That can't be a good thing.

Adria sat me down and found some fresh bandaging and – huzzah! – medigel! There was some other stuff in there too and I cleaned my arm – carefully – with some anti-septic wipes (which pretty much felt like dousing my arm in fire) and Adria applied the medigel (a sharp sting of pain, but not as bad as the antiseptic) before wrapping it again.

Medigel is _nice_ – it sealed up the cuts completely and numbed most of the pain.

I wiped the blood off my face and Adria went to redo the dressing on my forehead, and it was when she was trying to tape the new bandage on that I noticed how hard _she_ was shaking. I glanced at her face – she was tense and biting her lower lip as she tried to concentrate on what she was doing.

"Adria what's wrong?"

My question startled her out of whatever she'd been thinking, and she jerked, ripping some of the tape and bandage off. It stung like crazy and my eyes pricked with tears despite my efforts.

"Oh! I am so sorry, I-"

"It's fine, really," I assured her, bringing my own shaking hand up to lay the bandage flat. It was much more difficult than I would have thought because the higher I raised my arm, the shakier it got. Cripes, this was… I don't even know.

Adria ran her hands through her hair and let out a deep breath, closing her eyes and laying her head back as she paced in front of me.

"God, what is wrong with me? I can't stop shaking!" she huffed, swinging her arms down and shaking her hands harder as if to shake off the shakes.

"I don't know, but I can't seem to stop either," I muttered.

She continued as if she hadn't heard me, "I mean, we should be fine, we – hagh, we just escaped from _hell_ for God's sake, we should be happy! Ecstatic! Celebrating! We… we should…"

She grew quiet and neither of us could think of anything to say. Yes, we were out, yes, we had survived, but… I'd left Brandon behind, Tate, Donna, Max… all the others we'd picked up, even Creeper! I had no idea what had happened to them. The only real relief I had was knowing that Wes and his group had at least made it out of the station. But I didn't know where they had gone.

And poor Adria – she _knows_ the rest of her Cell was captured, knows that they're still being held for further experimentation, but doesn't know where.

That gave me pause – where had they taken them? And why take them somewhere else entirely? I guess it was because they'd been discovered: even if they could get rid of Saren, they were still compromised and I doubt moving that thing was easy.

A shudder racked my body as I tried to keep the dizzying wave of emotions from overwhelming me; I forced them down. I just couldn't deal with it all right now. One thing at a time. If I could even handle that much.

The two of us just sat there. Eddie came in a few minutes later: "Hey, I've got the auto-pilot set, we should be there in -" He stopped when he saw us, Adria's confused, sad face and my tense, blank one.

He stayed frozen for a moment, then continued into the room, "I'll scan for a decent landing spot once we're closer. It's a forest moon, plenty of water and vegetation, rather overcast." His tone was purely conversational, ignoring the depressed atmosphere.

He pulled his gloves off and walked over to me, "Let me get that bandage fixed – won't do much good hanging around like that."

I bristled and pulled back as he reached forward. I did _NOT _want to be touched right now. Eddie didn't say anything, just went ahead and adjusted the bandage and taped it firmly. I stared at him for an uncertain moment before looking at my feet.

"Thanks."

"Not a problem."

Him keeping so calm as he wandered around and fiddled with different things actually had a calming effect on the both of us girls, and Adria soon got up to wander with him, asking questions about the systems and how he knew so much about them.

I was only half paying attention as I leaned back and closed my eyes. I was just so tired I could barely think straight. I flexed my right fingers to unstiffen them and grimaced at the dull throbbing. Aw heck, maybe I should get up and walk around, keep myself awake.

I swung myself up – and let out a startled cry of pain, dropping back down and curling over my knees.

Adria and Eddie rushed over.

"What's wrong?" Eddie asked in a panic.

"Whoa, Megan, breathe, come one, easy now," Adria tried to tell me, but I wasn't able to respond beyond sucking in a breath sharply, pressing my hands against the pain in my side.

"Help me pull her arms back," I heard Adria say.

When they did I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming as my muscles kept getting tighter from me resisting them and pushing back to try and avoid the pain getting worse. Later I realized how stupid that was, but I just wanted to try and make it stop hurting, and pressing on it had worked while we ran around the station.

But Eddie held my arms over my head and Adria pulled my shirt up – I still had enough presence of mind to be embarrassed with her doing that with a guy _right there_ and I shouted a protest of "Hey! Uh-uh!"

But she didn't listen and only pulled it up to expose my stomach, and when she swore I looked down in curious surprise. And almost passed out when I saw the small, twisted hunk of metal sticking out from under my ribs.

I had a momentary flashback to the explosion in the hall… holy shit.

"Agh! Agh! Oh my God! Get it out! Get it out, please!" I practically wailed.

Cut me, hit me, burn me, I don't really care, but _stab _me withsomething, and then _leave it there_, NO. I'm one of those weirdos who'd rather get another second-degree burn from hot metal than deal with one thorn stuck in my thumb.

This was making me totally loopy, in a really bad way, and my head was spinning.

"Hold still Megan, _hold still_, or I can't get it out," Adria said firmly and I froze, grinding my teeth and staring at the ceiling, close to hyperventilating.

"You can't just take it out, she could bleed to death! Think about how much blood she's lost already!" Eddie protested.

I wanted to hit him, but I wasn't allowed to move.

"I know, just hold her still!" Adria snapped.

Eddie growled in frustration and Adria folded some bandages quickly into a thick square, covered one side in medigel and held it in one hand, bringing the other up to hover in front of the chunk of metal. She wasn't shaking anymore, I was completely frozen, and Eddie tightened his grip.

Adria breathed in deep and slowly let it out; I squeezed my eyes closed and turned my face back up to the ceiling.

My only clue of when she moved was her quick huff and then my side exploded in hot pain immediately followed by a cool numbing sensation and pressure on the wound. My head spun and my pulse seemed extremely loud as the combo of pain and relief made me pass out.

* * *

I blinked slowly, my eyelids so heavy I could barely squint and everything was blurry and gray. I blinked again and realized I was lying on my back, staring at the ceiling. That explains the gray. How long had I been out?

I couldn't tell whether the shuttle was still moving or not… I tried to sit up and failed as my right arm and left side screamed at me. Shaking, I lay back down. Oh yeah, baaaad idea.

And I must've made a sound because Adria ducked in from outside – okay so we'd landed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked with a concerned frown.

I decided to be honest, "Like crap."

She gave me a brief smile, "That doesn't surprise me."

"Ugh- how bad was it?" I asked, referring to my side.

"Not as bad as I was afraid it would be; it really wasn't very deep and you didn't lose too much blood once the medigel sealed it."

"Good; thanks," I sighed.

Adria nodded and per my request and against her better judgment, she helped me sit up. I'd been lying on the floor – with my luck I would've rolled right off a bench or something, so the floor was a good idea – and had to swivel my body so I could lean against the wall.

I looked around, "Where's Eddie?"

"Scouting the immediate area – we landed about fifteen minutes ago. I was coming back in to check the comm chatter when I heard you wake up."

"Why d'you need to check that? Won't that give us away?"

"No, only if we tried _sending_ a transmission; we want to see if there's any more of us out there, anywhere nearby…" she drifted off, looking uncertain.

It made me nervous, "Adria? What's wrong?"

She looked at me nervously and actually started wringing her hands – I noticed with some worry that she was shaking again.

"It's just – it's, uh… the station blew up."

She said those last words really fast so I assumed I'd heard her wrong.

"Excuse me?"

She gave me an anxious look, "The Project facility, the whole thing just – exploded a few minutes after you passed out, we were doing a quick check to see if we were being followed or something, a whole slew of ships flew out of the station and then it just… blew up."

"You – you said more ships got out? More people got out?" I asked desperately, clinging to that one statement like a lifeline.

Adria looked crushed, "Yeah, but… we don't know _who_. And they all left at the same time and went in all different directions so there's no way to … I'm sorry, but we're afraid it was the scientists with their recaptured Subjects, they would have pursued a ship that was full of escaping Subjects."

Better that than dead? I wondered. It was bad that I wasn't sure which Brandon or any of the others would prefer…

"But you don't know for sure, right?"

She shook her head, "No, but -"

"Zzt! Don't! Let me have something to hold on to," I talked over her, holding one hand up in a 'zip-it' gesture.

After a moment she nodded and headed into the cockpit. I didn't know how to deal with this new information, and I was scared to think about it too much. But I couldn't just NOT think about it, I … what was I supposed to do? I think now I understood a little better the 'keep hope alive, but not get your hopes up' thing. Maybe. I wasn't going to assume Brandon was dead, but I wasn't going to assume he was alive either. That's the only way I was going to keep what sanity I had left.

I really did feel like crap, but at least it was better than earlier, or than what I had expected. Medigel is some pretty awesome stuff. If I was real careful about it, I might be able to stand up… but first I'd better get a look at the injury so I could judge whether that would be beyond stupid or not. But I needed to DO something.

I pulled my shirt up – it didn't look too bad. They'd put a thick square of bandage on it so I couldn't actually see the…puncture wound. Ugh. And they had wrapped more gauze around my stomach to hold it in place. It still throbbed but I could handle that much. And my arm wasn't killing me anymore, so I decided it wouldn't be too stupid to get up. Very, very carefully.

I couldn't breathe too deeply without immense pain and it took me a few annoying minutes to figure out how to push myself up off the floor with one arm without using my abdominal muscles. I had to roll to my knees first.

I was breathing hard by the end of it, but I succeeded! I was on my feet, one hand on the wall to hold me steady. Phew. And ow, lots of ow. Maybe this wasn't such a good – then the wind blew in from outside.

The wind… it was soft and warmish, and it smelled like rain… wind and rain, and I could hear leaves rustling in the trees. I had to go outside. I had to, I hadn't been outside in … I don't know how long it's been.

My mind solely focused, I hobbled my way towards the open doors. My spidey-sense tingled so I wasn't startled when Eddie walked up a moment later. If I had been paying attention I probably would've heard him, but then again I'm not used to judging sounds and such in a forest.

The former guard was putting up his gun and was surprised to see me standing in the doorway, "What are you doing? You really shouldn't be -"

"I need – outside. Please, I _need_ to go outside."

The tightness in my voice betrayed the pain I was in, but Eddie looked me over for a second and then nodded, "Alright."

He held a hand out to me and I took it gratefully, leaning on him heavily as I started to step down from the shuttle, my right arm held out for balance. My foot hovered over the ground, toes curling as I hesitated. I was about to put my foot on the surface of a moon. It boggled my mind.

Then I stepped out into the forest. The grass was cool and smooth and tickled my feet and I wiggled my toes on the soft soil, surprising myself by giggling. The air was heavy and humid and I looked up at the gray, clouded sky.

A few warm drops of water fell on my upturned face. I grinned widely and looked at Eddie, who was grinning at my reaction.

"Do the trees clear out anywhere close?" I asked excitedly.

It looked like he had landed us in a small break of trees, with the tree line less than a foot away on all sides of the shuttle. Landing must have been damn tricky.

He nodded, "Yeah, a little further out where it gets hilly -"

"I'm coming too!" Adria chirped and hopped out, whatever she'd been doing forgotten for now.

The three of us weaved through the trees, the wind picking up and thunder rumbling in the distance. I had never been so excited to hear thunder. Not a minute later the treed grew sparse and, me still leaning on Eddie, we stepped into the open.

The landscape was beautiful – rolling hills with long grass shimmering in the winds, a small mountain range in the distance, more forest, and the rain started coming down harder.

Eddie started to retreat into the woods again so I slid away, slightly hunched but walking forward. I could hear Adria laughing as she twirled and I wished I could do the same. Instead I leaned my head back, holding my arms high and out wide, palms up.

We were soon soaked and my hair whipped out behind me as the wind howled around us. I had a huge, happy grin plastered on my face and I probably looked ridiculous, but I hadn't felt this good since getting sucked into this universe. Even with my injuries.

I crossed my wrists over my head and slowly brought my arms down, slowly letting out a deep breath. Yeah, I felt much better. I looked over my shoulder – Eddie was leaning against a tree and shaking his head at us and Adria was shaking her tangled curly hair out as she headed towards him. I guess we should be heading back.

A super-loud thunder clap confirmed this and the weather turned _very_ stormy; once back at the shuttle we got a brilliant show of blue and purple lightning. We didn't have any way to dry off or anything to change in to, but Adria and I weren't all that fussed about it. My hair was guaranteed to be a frizzy poof-ball no matter what without a brush, so whatever. Adria seemed to like her wild look, continuing to shake her hair so it surrounded her face like a lion's mane.

Of course Eddie and Adria were now insisting that I sit and stay seated to keep my injuries from getting overstressed. I finally gave in but only after they agreed to my insistence that I be in the cockpit – I wanted to keep up with what was going on. The comms were silent so far, no transmissions of any kind.

It got boring, and add to that our overall exhaustion and the steady drumming of the rain on the hull, the three of us were out like a light within an hour.

* * *

"_- *kssssh* -ease respond. Anybody there?"_

The noise made me groan as I woke up, and the empty static that followed grated on my nerves and helped to worsen my headache. It sounded like Mom had turned the basement kitchen radio on to a bad station and it was way too loud. Melody would be pissed if it woke her up early on a Saturday…

"_I repeat, this is James of C14, please respond."_

Wait, I'm not in my basement am I?

My eyes snapped open and I swore as I swung forward in the co-pilot seat, pulling tight on my puncture wound.

"_Come _on_, is anybody out there? Any Subjects at all? It's the good guys here!"_

The voice over the radio was sounding irritated and desperate and I stared at the console for a second before kicking Eddie's propped up foot off the arm of the pilot's chair, effectively waking him up.

"Wuzz goin on?" he mumbled, still half asleep and startled as he nearly fell out of the chair.

"There's someone on the radio!" I said excitedly, pointing.

"Wha – oh shit!" he exclaimed as he scrambled.

"Yeah, I don't know what button to push…" I said sheepishly.

"Wait, do we _want _to talk back? Who is it?" Adria asked, our loudness waking her.

"Well we should give it a shot, I think it's some of the Subjects from my group!"

She looked at me doubtfully, but Eddie went ahead and linked us in as they hailed us again:

"_This is James of C14, does anyone read me?!"_

Eddie almost said something, thought better of it, and motioned me to answer.

I cleared my throat, "Uh, this is Megan, of C21. Where are you?"

We were confused to hear a scuffle on the other end and then:

"_Megan?! Is that really you? Where are you, are you okay?!"_

"Wes! Oh my God! Are you okay?!" I was grinning like an idiot, I know, and my Cellmate laughed in relief.

"_I'm fine, I'm fine, what about you?"_

"I'm fi- "

"You are not! Don't lie!" Adria reprimanded.

"I am _too_ fine, it doesn't hurt _that_ bad!" I shot back, exasperated.

Wes spoke before she could: _"What doesn't hurt that bad? What happened? Is Brandon okay?"_

I froze, throat tightening as Brandon's panicked face flashed through my mind. How was I supposed to tell Wes I had left him behind?

"I – I'll give you details later, Brandon… he's not with me Wes."

There was silence on the other end for a few moments.

"_Who do you have with you?"_

I let out a shaky breath, thankful he wasn't pushing for now, "Uhm, Adria from Cell 10 and uh, our other guard buddy, Eddie. It's just the three of us."

"_Okay, we're picking up your signal and are on our way. Far as we can tell, we're the last ones still in this area or planet system."_

"Okay – good. Thanks, Wes. Nice to know you guys are okay."

"_Yeah, we've got some minor injuries, but nothing big,"_ Wes answered and then the first guy came back on:

"_Hey, we're gonna have to keep radio silence 'til we get close; there's no telling when someone else might show up."_

Eddie leaned on the console, "Understood."

End of transmission.


	18. Ch18:Drugs and Other Things

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, all belongs to BioWare except my OCs!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 18

* * *

_***DRUGS AND OTHER THINGS***_

I was pacing back and forth as we waited, still shaking and feeling sick, probably because of my injuries; ever since I'd talked to Wes my headache had returned, and with it my impatience grew. I was extremely twitchy and getting rather irritable… as well as very confused.

I'm pretty sure the headache is caused by the link, or in this case, the lack-thereof. My link was searching for a connection, like it had tried with Saren (I shuddered at the memory) and it wasn't 'finding' anyone. But Eddie and Adria were right there – that's what confused me.

Why wasn't the link trying to connect with either of them? Especially Adria, since she's a Subject, too. And why had it tried to connect to Saren and not them?

Hagh – I just hoped the others would get here soon, before the headache got any worse and for Wes' sake, too, if he was having the same problem I was. And I really, _really_ needed to see Wes, even as much as I dreaded telling him what had happened.

It was a few minutes later that the feeling in my head changed – it went from strained, reaching emptiness to an excited alert. I stopped dead in my tracks, Adria and Eddie, having long since stopped bugging me to sit and rest, gave me quizzical looks. I cocked my head to the side, reaching out to see if… Yes! There he was, I could feel him, for just a second!

We had to get closer, and then everything would be okay. I whirled around and sprinted away, following the link's guidance.

"Hey! Megan, where are you going?!" Eddie shouted and I vaguely registered that he and Adria were chasing me, but I was so focused I didn't care to think about why.

I crashed through trees and brush, splashing through muddy puddles. We were close, I could feel his excitement, his relief, and his amusement at those having to follow him, as well as an undercurrent of pain, not physical. I saw him push his way out of a willow-like tree's limbs and he gave me a huge grin as I let out an almighty squeal and threw myself at him.

He laughed as a root snagged one foot and I tripped.

Wes caught me in a hug and we spun around before he set me back on my feet, keeping me in the hug. My arms were wrapped tight around his back and my headache was completely gone (though my head was still spinning a bit) – our link connection was fully reestablished and the sudden overwhelming emotions mixing together caused me to burst into tears. How embarrassing.

Wes chuckled softly and pulled me back, wiping the tears off my face. I gave him an embarrassed smile as I sniffled and tried to put a halt to the waterworks; he frowned and pushed my bangs off my face.

"What did you do to your head?"

I paused, "Uhm…"

"And what did you do to your arm?!"

"Well that was -"

"You need to get a look at what she did to her side, too, she's banged herself up pretty good."

I scowled over my shoulder at Adria as she and Eddie came up behind me and a few others filed in around Wes, all looking a bit more drained than I thought they should. I tried to wave (I mean, I do know them all and it was a relief to see them), but Wes held me to the spot with his hands on my shoulders.

"What in the world happened to you?" he asked, glancing down and frowning at the slight bulge under my ribs that the bandage made.

"Stuff was exploding and I got tossed around a bit -"

"Let me see -"

"Hey! No no no! Later, Wes, seriously, it's fine -"

Eddie snorted, "No it's not, especially how you ran like mad to get here."

I glared at him and he just crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at me. He was right and I knew it, I hadn't thought about what running like that would do. Now he points it out, and I can feel it throbbing a little more than before.

"Do we need to get you to the shuttle? Though we may be out of medical stuff by now, it didn't have a lot to start with," Adria thought out loud.

I huffed in annoyed indignation to try and mask how stupid and self-conscious I felt, "Would you people chill for a few minutes? I'm not a baby!"

Wes, obviously, wasn't fooled, "Stop getting so defensive, you're hurt and need medical attention, it's not a big deal –"

"Yeah, well – you're not looking so hot either, so -" I stopped and frowned – they really _didn't _look so good, all the Subjects on his side, and Adria too.

Wes sighed, "We're just tired, you're the one who's actually _injured."_

I ignored and said more seriously, "Wes, none of you look like you're just tired. Including you Adria. And okay, so I know I look pretty bad, but like you said, I have an excuse."

"Well what do you expect?" a Soldier from Cell 14 asked, "We've been out less than a day and are still adjusting to not getting poked, prodded, zapped, beat up and drugged up. It'll take a while to – what? What'd I say?"

He looked rather panicked when he saw mine and Wes' faces as the two of us realized something we definitely should have thought of earlier: we weren't getting the Drug anymore, oh crap, and with how long it had been we were probably getting to or were past the point where we _needed_ another dose. If we don't get it, which of course now we can't…

This is _bad_.

"Megan? Guys? Come on, you're freaking us out here," Adria said nervously.

Wes and I looked at each other:

*_How are we supposed to tell them?_* I asked. Lord it was good to have the link back up.

*_I don't know, but we have to, and soon_* he answered quietly.

The others were getting impatient waiting for an answer; Wes sighed, "Let's get back to the ship, we'll explain there."

"But -" the Soldier tried to say but Wes cut him off.

"No Dorian, everyone else needs to hear it too, it'll be best to just have to say it once."

Dorian nodded reluctantly and Wes asked Eddie if there was anything we needed from our shuttle.

"Not really; there's a couple more guns, but we've each got one so it's not a big deal."

"Alright, then let's go."

As we headed out Wes suddenly scooped me up in a 'princess-carry' which made me squeak in embarrassed surprise.

"Wes! I can walk, honest!"

"Maybe so, but with how badly you're hurt I'd rather you didn't. We're taking another look at you once we get there."

I opened my mouth to argue, more out of the self-consciousness I felt whenever someone looked at me than actual protest, but Wes of course sensed it and merely raised his eyebrows; the attitude I felt from him made me mumble, "Fine."

Adria then made a noise of mock disgust, "What, so you'll listen to him that easily?"

Wes grinned at her, "We're pretty good at reading each other, she knows I'd win the argument anyway."

A couple of the other Subjects laughed, but Eddie, Adria and the others looked confused.

*_Yeah, only a couple other Cells have something similar to the link._* Wes said in response to my questioning look.

I frowned, *_I wonder why?_*

*_I'm not sure, none of us have really talked about it, we could just kind of… tell. Or I can, anyway, and I think they can. Oh, and you're Biotic friend from 13 – his name is Joshua – is looking forward to see you again and making sure you are okay._*

*_I'm looking forward to seeing him too… and speaking of him, I thought you said there were no major injuries for you guys? Wasn't, like, HALF our group fairly banged up?_*

*_Well, yes, but none of it was too bad or as bad as it looked, and the rest of us are keeping them from trying to do much. The Tech from 13, Fred, is the worst off.*_

*_Yeah I remember him._* His name is Fred? Seriously, why did he have to be 'Fred', a lot of 'Fred's I ever read about (in _Harry Potter, So You Want To Be A Wizard, _and others) or the random wildlife Melody and I named 'Fred' (poor possum) seemed to have a bad habit of dying. Now I'm going to be paranoid until he's okay.

No one was talking anymore but after a few minutes of link-silence I could feel Wes growing uncomfortable and worried. I was afraid I knew what it was about, so I decided to go ahead and get it over with:

*_I don't know where Brandon is, Wes, or if he's hurt, or okay, or … I'm sorry. I left him behind. I didn't want to, I didn't mean to, but Saren…_*

Unbidden, the memories rose up and I couldn't stop Wes from seeing them, or from feeling the pain and anger and panic I'd been feeling. He tensed and I kept my head down as the images faded. Then he gave me a gentle squeeze and along with the swirl of emotions I could feel from him, there was also exasperation.

*_Megan, you did not leave Brandon behind, that was not your fault – you were separated, there's a difference. The Turian is to blame, not you._*

That may be true, mostly, but I still felt guilty, inadequate. Why was it that when it came down to crunch time, I couldn't protect them? First Noah, now Brandon… I must be jinxed or something and I needed to make sure that wherever we went I was not alone with anyone or I'd be so paranoid that something bad would happen to them I would probably _cause_ something bad to happen to them. Eddie and Adria were okay so far, so maybe it was just my Cellmates. Or other Biotics.

But I am definitely okay with blaming Saren, and it's probably healthier than trying to take all the blame myself, so I just get some of it. And I blame Glasses, Cerberus, those recruiter people, most guards, etc…

* * *

Their shuttle was bigger than ours, a lot bigger actually, more of a public transport than a personal one. And this was good considering there were 14 people now aboard. My puncture wound had started bleeding again, but only a little, and it was cleaned and re-dressed and then Wes called everyone to 'gather round' so we could explain what was going on.

Their reactions, while not surprising, were not good.

"So you're telling us we're going to die anyway?! After all the shit we went through, we're still going to DIE?!" Carver, our Cell 3 guy, a Tech, exclaimed angrily, "Why the hell couldn't you have mentioned this sooner? What was the point of escaping if we're not going to survive?!"

"We don't know what's going to happen -" Loran, the other guard, tried to say, but Isis, the female Soldier from Cell 14, interrupted him:

"They _do_ know what will happen, were you not listening? Do not try and make light of this, especially when it's not your life at stake."

Loran looked properly abashed, "I – I wasn't trying to make light of anything, I was trying to say that maybe it – it works different outside the facility, maybe by getting out, your implants won't react the same way."

"Then why are we all getting sick? And why _would _it work any differently, the implants are pre-programmed, they should run the same regardless of where we are," Adria snapped.

"What I would like to know is why it took so damn long for you to mention this," growled James, a Soldier from Cell 20.

Wes and I were about to defend ourselves – we were a little busy trying to stay alive, people! – when Joshua intervened, glaring at James, "Well I suppose they were just a little preoccupied with staying alive and keeping _us_ alive as well, wouldn't you say?"

James scowled in discomfort as Joshua continued, "And geez, _she -"_ he pointed at me – "was so distracted she didn't even notice that she'd been poked full of holes!"

"But once we got out -" James half-heartedly tried arguing back.

"Were you thinking anything beyond 'We're free! We're free!'? Or worrying about the fates of others? We've just been going and going, there hasn't been much time!" Lex, Biotic of Cell 9, chimed in.

"And would it have made much of a difference had we known? I'd rather die free than live as a lab rat," Raschelle, James' Tech Cellmate, said quietly. James didn't say anything else, just sighed and stared at the floor.

I sure didn't know what to say and there was an uncomfortable silence until Molly, a Soldier from Cell 9, asked softly, "Is there nothing we can do?"

Wes rubbed a hand across his face, "I honestly have no idea, unless we get some of the Drug, except they blew up the facility and I can't think of a way to access the implants to just turn them off."

Raschelle looked up with an 'Ah ha!' expression, "Maybe someone already did."

We all looked at her curiously; she looked excited, "Don't you guys remember what happened when this got started? That super-shock? Everybody felt that, right?"

We nodded.

"And think about _where_ we got shocked – what did it remind you of?"

So she was trying to lead us through it… and I for one felt kind of brain-dead so couldn't come up with much; it had been on our neck or something, I remembered that much, but what…?

"I guess it was kinda like the inhibitor, that kind of shock or something? It was in the same place, right?" Molly answered uncertainly.

Raschelle nodded bouncily, "Yeah, and does anyone remember the inhibitors being activated at any point?"

Uh, no, actually, but it's not like that would have really stopped us, though I suppose it could have slowed us down? Maybe? I could feel from the others that they were thinking along the same line as me.

Raschelle continued, "You see, we don't even know how the malfunctions or whatever started, but _somebody_ had to be behind it! What if they were able to hack the system to short-out the inhibitor functions?"

I could feel the atmosphere getting really excited until Fred said gloomily, "That doesn't have anything to do with the brain implants though."

The excitement was sufficiently nipped in the bud.

Raschelle rolled her eyes, "Ack, would someone _please_ think with me here? What happened next?"

I sighed tiredly, "All I remember is running and shooting like a maniac, the brain-and-body-numbing pain as our heads collectively screamed bloody murder, and all the other crap that followed."

Raschelle sighed, "So close, and so totally oblivious to it."

So close? So close to what? "What do you mean? What'd I say?"

Wes was pinching the bridge of his nose and thinking hard, and he leaned forward, "You're talking about the head thing? You think that was caused by something being done with the implants."

Raschelle shrugged, "Got any other ideas to what it was?"

"But that doesn't make any sense – if the implants are no longer a factor, then why are we getting sick?" Lex asked anxiously.

Rsachelle frowned and looked disappointed, but Wes shook his head, "No, she may be right, but us getting sick now may be for a different reason, our bodies' reaction to the remaining Drug in our system now that we no longer have the implants to regulate it."

"I thought you said the drug kills you unless you have the implants?" Isis said.

"Well, it's supposed to, but -"

"We would be dead already if that's how it worked," James said quietly, shuddering and closing his eyes, "Or let's just hope we're not experiencing some sort of… delayed reaction."

"Come again?" Adria asked, gesturing for them to explain.

The Cellmates shared a dark look before James went on: "When Raschelle and I got separated from the others, we ended up running into this room where we thought we could hide, but… a couple of scientists and a guard showed up, they tried to grab us, and -"

"One of the scientists fell back on a table of trays during the fight, there was a bunch of medical supplied, one being a syringe of their Drug," Raschelle took a deep breath, "It was one of the most unpleasant, disturbingly horrifying things I have ever seen. At first she just started shaking, then she couldn't breathe and she was retching, her whole body started to… break down or something, it was like she – _melted_, dissolved."

"That's a very edited version, we really don't think you guys want the full details," James added, head between his knees as he tried to not be sick.

Most of us were having a hard time of it, too, I mean I have a really active imagination that was doing its best to give me a visual right now, and the only thing keeping me from throwing up at that visual was pure stubbornness. Though given how long it's been since I've eaten I doubt much of anything would come up anyway.

It was very quiet for a while; all we could hear was the sounds of the forest's nightlife coming out and the again-howling wind.

"So… what's going to happen to us?" Adria asked fearfully.

Wes answered calmly, "We wait and see. There's nothing else we can do."

* * *

Eddie and Loran, along with a few uninjured Subjects who were the least sick so far (Adria, James, and Dorian) left a short while later to see if they could scrounge up some food – 2181 Eubolos was a levo-based planet, and with all this vegetation around there had to be something we could eat. But very few of us were still interested in food – when you're curled up in the fetal position wanting nothing more than to pass out but something keeps you on the brink of consciousness, you don't notice little things like hunger.

It had hit us injured people first, and hardest. Fred lost all motor control only a few minutes after the other group left; he had started shaking really bad and stumbled like he was dizzy, and Josh managed to catch him as he collapsed. Then the rest of us started going down, one by one, and I'm pretty sure I somehow took Wes down with me. It was like something suddenly sucked the air out of me, throat going tight, head spinning, every nerve buzzing, whole body shaking.

I couldn't make myself stop, I was completely incapable of any control, I couldn't make my arms or legs do anything, I couldn't even pick up my head as I tried to breathe. It scared me. My injuries hurt even more as the skin around the edges became taut and pulled. I stayed lucid for a while. I tried to focus on regaining control, but… there was nothing I could do.

I didn't know what was going on with the others now, and once I lost the ability to think clearly everything became a whirling blur of colors and sounds I couldn't make sense of…

* * *

**A/N: Hey sorry if this chapter is a little slow, I wanted to cover some things before going on. I promise the next one will not be as step-by-step, I know that can get old pretty fast. It will be more interesting and move the story along better!**


	19. Ch19: Darwin

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect! I claim my OCs!

MEFF: Project Darwin CHAPTER 19

* * *

**A/N: Here's the next chapter! Sorry it took so long! Thank you thank you for the reviews and I hope you enjoy! ****And HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Megan wishes she had turkey...  
**

***_DARWIN_*  
**

There was no sense of time in this blurry, swirling dimension of confusion. Only a few moments stood out with any clarity: being moved – seeing Wes lying next to me – the whole world shaking around me – something cold trickling into my mouth – people running around, shouting – a bittersweet taste while a voice barked at me – a moment of complete and utter silence.

None necessarily in that order.

_Oh God I was having another nightmare. I so do not have time for this. The alien clearly didn't care as its shadowy form shimmered into view, absolutely huge again in the dark, fiery orange atmosphere. I was breathing hard and felt really hot as I stared up at its glowing eyes._

_***PATHETIC***_

_The voice rumbled across the expanse, like a shockwave that almost knocked me off my feet._

_***IF WE HAD ANOTHER OPTION WE WOULD LEAVE YOU TO ROT AND WITHER. AS FOR NOW, YOU ARE STILL A NECESSITY TO THE CONTINUATION OF THE CYCLE. BE GRATEFUL, HUMAN.***_

_I couldn't move away as one long, thin limb reached forward to touch my forehead…_

* * *

_I stood on a pedestal with eight paths of light branching off, each path a different color and intensity. This was not one of my usual nightmares, but I could tell it was not a good dream either. I felt dizzy, light-headed and was still having trouble breathing. Which was odd given that this was not an actual physical realm._

_A few of the paths had an eerie aura and made me nervous. Then two of the paths, light blue and black, started pulsing, the black's light beginning to fade. This was bad, very bad, but I didn't know why, and I couldn't do anything, I couldn't move, the two orbs of light at the end of the path threatening to go out._

_Suddenly a third path, silver, already glowing brightly flashed even brighter, a beam of light arcing overhead, connecting with the fading path, which flickered and hummed softly, as its light regained its intensity and held stable._

_That's when my own pedestal started to flicker and dim. I still couldn't move and my vision was tunneling as I fought against blacking out. I heard and saw the blue and silver paths flash and light rushed towards me._

* * *

A soothing voice spoke softly and something touched my face. My eyes wouldn't open, but I was mostly conscious. The woman's voice spoke again, urging me to wake up and she dabbed a cool wet cloth on my eyes. There was something – someone? – in my head that I didn't recognize, pushing at me, helping me wake up.

I opened my eyes and breathed in sharply through my nose, blinking rapidly to dispel my stubborn exhaustion. Above me, a tired-looking Isis gave me a relieved smile, "Good to see you two finally awake."

'You two'? I frowned and twisted my head – Wes was still next to me, already pushing himself up to sit, looking slightly dazed but satisfied.

"Josh and Fred are coming around."

I had to tilt my head backwards to see Dorian kneeling next to the two 13's who were slowly opening their eyes. Wes looked around, "Is everyone else okay?"

Isis nodded, "Yes, we all made it – Dorian and I were the first to recover, soon followed by Raschelle, James, and Adria. Carver, Molly, and Lex took a while longer, probably due to their injuries. No one is one hundred percent, but we're all still here."

That was a relief and made sense, but… "Why are you just waking up?" I asked Wes.

"You were hurt – did you really think I'd just let you deal with it on your own?"

They explained: Isis and Dorian had woken first due to being overall healthier and had their own link to support each other with. Wes went down with me because of_ our_ link, and while I couldn't do much to help him, he was able to help me through it.

Good God I could've killed him – what if I _hadn't _woken up?! Wes told me not to worry of course, but it still really bothered me that if I had died he might have too. I wondered if it was an effect of it being just the two of us on the link; I think it was stronger, more dangerous somehow. At least when one of us got taken down. I don't like it.

Josh and Fred nearly died because both were injured and couldn't disconnect their link – same problem with Wes and me. They each felt the others pain and it added to their own, which just made them worse.

Isis and Dorian solved the link problem by extending their link to the 13's, thus giving them the support and distance they needed, and then they linked with Wes and me, which was the final factor that helped me and the 13's to fully come out of it.

It was weird – not necessarily in a _bad_ way – just weird, to have a new group of people in your head. It wasn't _exactly_ like our Cell's link, and it didn't seem to be as … intricate? Though of course I was most strongly linked to Wes, our link hadn't changed all that much.

They fed us while they filled us in on what was going on – soon after the food gatherers returned, in a hurry because the Subjects were beginning to feel the side-effects, the storm on the moon had escalated at an alarming rate and forced them to take off before we got stuck there for who-knows-how-long.

"So where are we going?" Josh asked around a mouthful of reddish-brown berries - that had apparently been the bitter taste I remembered as they force-fed us.

The 14's sighed and Isis answered, "We're still trying to figure that out."

* * *

"We've gotta go to Skepsis to get to the Mass Relay anyway, it would be easier and faster to go to the colony on Watson, or even straight to the Alliance bases on Franklin!"

"Are you kidding me? What good would going to the Alliance do?"

"Hey guys…"

"We've got info on these guys, we should give it to them! Get them caught!"

"They've been operating one system away the entire freekin' time! Did they help? No! They didn't even bother!"

"No one knew where we were!"

"Uh, people?"

"That distress call was sent out _twice_! The damned Spectre found us, why couldn't they?!"

"And what do you think they'll do with us, eh? Let us go on our merry way after we tell them everything? They're gonna study us too! We'll be made into little lab rats all over again!"

"Especially if we arrive en masse, they won't be able to pass up the chance…"

"Oh my God, do you really think that badly of them? We're humans, we're citizens, we have rights and they wouldn't just do that!"

"Oh don't be so naïve, everyone knows they do all sorts of experiments and classified crap – and how would anyone else know we were there? If no one knows, then our rights go straight out the airlock!"

Annoyed, I shouted over the incessant arguing, "HELLO! Hey yeah, hi, we're all okay, thanks for asking!"

The compartment full of people looked at us in surprised silence; then Adria hopped over, "Oh good you're up! How're you feeling?"

"Uh, fine, I guess, better anyway…"

"Good, come up here!" And she grabbed my left wrist, pulling me forward.

"Adria! Wha -"

"You too Wes!" James glared at Adria and me, dragging Wes to the front with us, the others getting out of the way.

We ended up standing at the console between Eddie and Loran, Eddie in the pilot's chair and Loran as co-pilot.

"Hey," Eddie said in a monotone.

"Uh, hi – I notice you guys weren't in on the shouting match," I said, though most of my attention was caught by the sparkly galaxy map holo.

"Yeah, they won't let us put our two-cents in, since we aren't 'Subjects'," Loran answered casually, fiddling with something on his gun.

Wes and I looked at each other and back to them.

"Well, really, I mean, they kinda have a point…" I started awkwardly. I didn't want to hurt their feelings, but where we were going would have much less effect on them than on us.

"Oh no, yeah, we get it, really, you guys get to decide. We're not complaining, promise," Loran assured me, to which Eddie responded:

"We just wish they would _decide_."

"We're trying guys, but now they're here, they can go ahead and figure it out," Carver said, looking at Wes and me.

Wes raised his eyebrows, "_We_ can figure it out? Me and Meg?"

"Well yeah, you two were kinda the 'de facto' leaders or whatever, so go ahead – lead!" Molly answered brightly.

I was floundering for what to say when Wes leaned onto the console, "So what are our options?"

I gawped at him, to which he gave a small shrug: *_You just want to let this get argued out?_*

*_Ugh – no, I just don't want anyone to get pissed when we don't decide to go where they want to go._*

"So you guys are okay with wherever we choose? No one will throw a fit over it?" Wes asked the group.

The consensus was yes, they would go along with our decision, so long as we have a reason for it. We started to look the map over carefully and I'll admit, it totally boggled my mind. Examining and exploring a galaxy map… definitely surreal.

The others kept trying to offer advice and opinions, but since it almost broke into another fight, we told them that if they wanted to offer something then they had to raise their hands and wait to be acknowledged.

Lex scoffed, "Come off it, we're not kids!"

"Then quit acting like it," Isis snapped, her patience worn thin.

It was very quiet after that, and Wes and I did most of our discussing over the link, starting the debate over whether we should go to the Alliance or not. Going to them would be the best option if our main goal was to have that facility and such investigated, but we agreed that there was no guarantee on how we would be treated. The Alliance is honorable, but some of the people are not, and the argument from earlier did have us worried that we could end up back in a lab. But it would also be such a relief to be able to get an investigation started, put it on somebody else to deal with…

But after a few minutes and hearing some real fears from a few of the others, we decided that the Alliance would not be our first stop. We decided that we needed to go somewhere where we could get our hands on some resources, but keep our heads down so the bad guys wouldn't get wind of where we headed.

Our current location was the Sigurd's Cradle System, which had five planetary systems: Decoris, Lenal, Mil, Psi Tophet(where our moon was), and Skepsis. To make things quick we only looked at the viable options in each system, and they were limited, none real promising.

Mil: Terapso's moon was a generally neutral area with its own separate government even, not a lot of pirate activity in the system with Chalkhos colonized by Asari and their mates.

Lenal: only Nutus looked good for us, it had a refuel station too, Triginta Petra was taken by Turians… though it turned out the Nutus moons had a resident warlord, and that didn't seem like a good idea.

Decoris only has two planetary bodies, but one was uninhabitable and the other was virtually useless, only habitable around the equator with high piracy. So no on Decoris.

Of course nothing else in Psi Tophet would be of any use… and that takes us to Skepsis – it has a refuel station AND a Mass Relay! Only Franklin and Watson came up as being colonized, Franklin being Alliance bases, Watson mostly a mix of Earth nations, with a variety of other species as well. So Watson sounded like it would be a really nice place to go, despite it being colder… but we had to assume that the security there was fairly high. Franklin was there to protect Watson and such, so how were we, a weird little group all wearing the same raggedy clothes, going to go unnoticed by the Alliance? Then again this is the Terminus Systems, they were probably used to misfits and weirdos…

At this point I banged my head onto the console, "Okay are we just completely and totally against the whole 'going to the Alliance' idea? Cuz come on guys, they're the good guys, and Watson sounds absolutely perfect!"

I was immediately bombarded with enough shouting that I had to hold my hands up in surrender, "Fine, FINE, I HEAR YOU! No Alliance, geez."

Then of course those who really DID want to go to the Alliance got mad at those who didn't, and we had to make them all sit down on opposite sides of the compartment and shut up before Wes and I could continue. I started to say maybe we should all just go our separate ways, drop people off where they wanted to go, which is what made them all get quiet – no one felt like splitting up, that was a scary notion this early on.

*_We're going to have to get out of Sigurd's Cradle regardless, so let's see what the closest option is_* I said grumpily. I expected Wes to try and get me to calm down a little, but he was irritated enough that he merely agreed.

He broadened the scope of the map and I just stared at the system that was quite clearly the closest – the Omega Nebula, containing six orbit systems, one of which was called Sahrabarik, with three planets, a fuel depot, the Mass Relay, an asteroid belt, and the Omega asteroid.

I grabbed Wes' arm and shook it, trying and failing to keep my excitement under control *_Wes this is perfect! This is where we need to go!_*

*_Um – why?_* he wasn't disagreeing, he was just confused, *_This is where the Relay will take us, so yes it should be the first place we check out, but what's got you so excited?_*

*_Omega! That's where we need to go! Look, it's like right there, it's perfect!_*

*_Okay explain to me how the most lawless place in the galaxy that is infested with corruptness, criminals, and danger is the perfect place to go._*

Okay now I had to come up with a reason besides I just REALLY wanna go there…

*_Because it's the most lawless place in the galaxy and is totally corrupt and infested with criminals and danger! It's just what we need! Seriously though, Omega is the one place where we can do whatever we want to do, or have to do, to protect ourselves and there's so much opportunity there! I know it's a risk, anywhere we go is a risk, but there we can all do what we want and… and honestly I just really want to go to Omega. But it will work, I really think it will! I mean, a lot of crazy crap happens on Omega, and we would fit right in, us being a bunch of… I dunno, 'misfits.'_*

*_…okay I'm still not totally sure of this, but if you're really that excited about it, let's see what the others think._*

Sweet!

He pulled the glowing asteroid up on screen, "Alright everyone, this is looking like the closest available option that doesn't step on anyone's toes – anybody got a problem with Omega?"

All in all, no, no one had an issue with Omega except being confused until we explained the 'why' of our decision, and the decision was now official because quite a few people (mostly guys) were very much looking forward to it, and that made Wes comfortable with the idea, so he was able to convince the doubtfuls:

"There are also opportunities for those who want to go ahead and contact the Alliance or anyone else, or even… go home."

His voice had broken a little on 'go home' and I knew why – his family thought he was dead. He wasn't sure he had a home to go back to. Which was not true, it would just take a lot of explaining as to why he's not dead, but he could go home. His family would be ecstatic to get him back. The same goes for all of them…

Just not for me.

Seeing as the decision had been made, Eddie announced he was plotting the course for the Skepsis Relay and Wes cleared his throat and asked, "Any more questions?"

He was surprised when I raised my hand up high and Eddie and others laughed when I said, "Do we have more food? I'm still hungry."

As far as I am concerned, eating is a great way to deal with emotional issues – which is why I was not really in great shape when I got nabbed.

"Yes of course we have more food, we have plenty," Adria smiled, waving for me to follow.

"Yay, so are there any more of those little sweet fruit things? Those were excellent, much better than the icky berries…"

* * *

I was on my way to visit Eddie and Loran in the cockpit – the two guards had kind of holed up in there, feeling awkward around us all of a sudden – but I stopped just outside as I heard them muttering to each other:

"- really shouldn't, I don't think they would -"

"Oh come on Ed, this is hilarious! They'll get a kick out of it!"

"Get a kick out of what?" I asked as I waltzed in on them, taking a bite out of the juicy blue sweet fruit I had. It was soooo good, the skin textured a bit like jerky but not chewy and it peeled off real easy and tasted kind of like an orange, but richer, and the meat of the fruit was a tangy mix of apple and blackberry. Best fruit I have _ever_ had and it made my sweet tooth and taste buds sing.

Eddie frowned at the large half-eaten fruit in my hand, "How many of those have you eaten?"

"Uh… five?"

He gave me a look, "You're going to make yourself sick."

"No I am not, I need the sugar. And back to _MY_ question please?"

Loran grinned and Eddie sighed, but started to pull up the galaxy again, which appeared to have been what they were looking at before I came in and had abruptly shut it off.

I shouted a protest when Wes came up behind me and took my nom-noms away, "That's mine! Give it back!"

"Nope, you've had enough already. Eat these."

He dropped a handful of nuts into my upheld palm.

"The fruit tastes better," I mumbled.

"And it'll sour your stomach faster."

I popped a couple of the already de-shelled nuts into my mouth, "Thanks Wes."

"You're welcome. So what's going on in here?"

And he munched on my fruit. I sighed but ate more of my nuts – they were good too, more savory. Eddie started to explain:

"Well when we looked through the systems earlier, we only paid attention to those already colonized or deemed habitable and whatnot, filtering out the other planetary bodies."

We nodded – I was done with my nuts and Wes just held his hand out and gave me another handful.

"But now that we're nearly to Skepsis, I just pulled up the whole system map and was reading up on all the planets when I noticed this…"

He trailed off and I was out of nuts again – Wes handed me more and as I tossed another couple in I frowned at my Cellmate, "Do you have some Heward's Handy Haversack full of nuts or something?"

He laughed at me and showed me the nearly empty container hanging off his belt – I was more surprised over the fact that he got my D&D reference than the container, but I also giggled over him anticipating needing to feed me real food.

Then we turned out attention to the holo projection as a mottled, dark red planet was brought into full view. I half-choked and Wes stared blankly, eyebrows raised.

The planet's name was _Darwin._ There was a damned planet named _Darwin?! _What the hell is up with that? This lifeless hunk of rock where no life could possibly ever come to be, they named after Darwin? Nice one BioWare. Ha ha ha.

I couldn't decide whether to laugh or not, because the guards clearly found this funny and Wes was dumbstruck but starting to grin in disbelief, but I mean what are the odds that we get hijacked into the Project Darwin Experience and there's a planet the next system over named Darwin? I think I would have died if this was the planet the station had been orbiting – why hadn't they set up here? I guess because of the close proximity to all the Alliance bases, but man that would have been hellishly perfect.

And yet I was also feeling an intense impulsive desire to find a giant laser gun and blow the damned hot rock to smithereens…

*_Hey Isis, you guys need to see this_* I called ruefully. I could feel her curiosity but didn't explain anything. She, Dorian, Fred, and Josh wandered in after a minute – after they geeked out over it for a few minutes we traded the space for the others who wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

People's reactions were hysterical, and Eddie was relieved that none of us were acting insulted or anything, and he actually made a special detour-on-request. He flew us by the planet and the whole lot if us Subjects (excluding Wes and Isis) pressed our faces against the windows and pulled weird, grotesque faces at the planet Darwin, quite a few of the others also making rude gestures and derogatory references to the planet's mother and sexual capability. Isis continually face-palmed over Dorian's stuff and Wes just laughed at us.

We were all in stitches and I was definitely feeling loopy by the time we passed it by and I joined the ones who stayed at the windows, 'oohing' and 'aahing' over the sights.

Then we reached the Relay and I hurried to the cockpit; Eddie grinned at me, "Thought I might see you up here."

"Well my first time through a Relay I want to see up close!" I said cheerily as I plopped into the now-vacant co-pilot seat, leaning forward expectantly.

Wes and Adria followed me in and Josh came in as Eddie was putting in the Relay sequences and he sat on the floor next to me, leaning against the side of the chair.

"You okay?" I asked.

He glanced up at me and nodded, "Yeah, just getting tired again. Fred, too, he's dozing off back there with some others. You doing alright?"

"I guess; my side's a little more sore after all the activity earlier, so I'm being good and sitting down."

"And you're going to stay there until we land," Wes said firmly.

I saluted him with a grin, "Yes sir!"

God, the Relay was just so huge and so awesome, with the spinning and the glowing. I was grinning like a little kid at Christmas-time as the Relay hummed and flashed and shot us across the galaxy.

* * *

I couldn't help it – I was bouncing I was so excited, had been since I'd spotted the eerily glowing asteroid. We docked and I hurried to wait by the doors with the others. As the doors opened and we got our first full view of the bustling docking bay, Loran announced:

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Omega, the land without rules."

I couldn't stop the grin, "Oh there is one rule of Omega…"

They looked at me in question and my grin got bigger as I strode forward, looking back over my shoulder to answer, "Don't fuck with Aria."

And I hopped out of the shuttle.


	20. Ch20: OMEGA

MEFF CHAPTER 20

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect awesomeness, I claim my OCs!

* * *

_***OMEGA***_

**A/N: *peeks out from behind couch* Hi people. Sorry people. I HAVEN'T HAD ACCESS TO A COMPUTER IN FOREVER! Honest! But I am back now and my plot bunnies have come back to me, so all is well. Or better, anyway. Please read and I hope you enjoy! :D**

Worst. Idea. _Ever_. 'Let's go to Omega!' I said, 'It'll be fun!' I said_. Wrong_, just… just _NO_. See, this is why I tend to follow rather than lead, because rarely do I ever have good ideas that follow through the way I want them to.

We'd been on this godforsaken rock for three days and have had nothing but trouble. Why? Because _DUH_, it's Omega! All it is, is trouble!

I scowled darkly at a grungy teenage boy eyeing our little group and he wisely scampered – I was currently in the mood to blow something up, despite the one small stroke of luck (if you could call Wes' group getting jumped and snatching a credit chit or two off their attackers before running away from the escalating firefight a stroke of luck) that enabled us to grab some food last night.

Hadn't felt that way when we first got here – I'd been all excited, feeling rather proud of myself and like 'Yeah that's right we're awesome, check it out people' … until I'd seen all the people looking at us. The small spaceport was packed, mostly humans with Asari and Batavians, and even though I knew they weren't, it felt like they were all watching us. It was very …unsettling. Creepy. Yes, we were under constant surveillance at the facility, but that was different. This was the 'real' world, people going about their daily lives, and I suddenly felt extremely self-conscious.

Gone was the 'in your face' Subject, now Megan Winters stood in her place, and Megan Winters had always been an awkward social outcast, a totally different person – not the semi-crazy I'd been since getting zapped into this universe and thrown into insane situations, but reverting to the shy, meek little scaredy-cat person.

I honestly hadn't thought about this happening. I went from waltzing off the ship to half hiding behind Wes, actually going so far as to hang on to the hem on the back of his shirt to make myself feel better. He'd only seen me act like that when I'd first been brought in to that first cell, but then I'd met Glasses and some crazy switch flipped and I got all snarky.

So I had made him all confused and concerned, especially since I wasn't the only one showing my nervousness. If we weren't careful we could paint a target on our backs as being 'weak', even with all of us being armed.

Wes told me, in no uncertain terms, to buck up and help him out, so I sucked it up. The others' was mostly false bravado as well, so I didn't feel like too much an idiot, and it was enough to get our group out of port safely (Eddie, Molly, Carver, Fred, and James stayed behind to keep claim on our ship).

Things had been interesting from the start – our group waltzed right in to the large market plaza amidst all the hustle and bustle and noise, and realized that was a stupid thing to do as our heightened senses were horribly assaulted. Even on the outskirts of the crowds it felt like being in an IMAX theater with super surround sound and bass boost at full volume with no way to turn it down. I hadn't realized the facility had been so quiet and I had worried that this overwhelming might be the norm in real life. Even now it made my head ache, which helped keep my mood dour and my Subject persona up. Though on day one, Loran had suggested retreating as us Subjects were getting nauseated.

Then when we decided to meander in the back alleys and in mere minutes we'd been 'approached' by a 'security detail' – ten males, a mix of humans, one batarian, and Turians. It had been kind of freaky at the time, ten to our nine, and surrounding us, saying we need to pay them for their protection in these dangerous parts. Wes had calmly informed them that we were totally broke and a tussle had ensued after one bare-faced Turian had made a crude suggestion as to how 'the females' could offer their payment. It was a short fight, Dorian snapped the Turian's arm and the rest of us sufficiently beat the crap out of the rest of them and sent them running.

None of us with Biotics got to use them, as they would attract too much attention, and the Techs kept it simple too.

After that we had to force ourselves to adjust as much as we could to the sensory overload – Omega stinks, too, and that was not easy to get over with a super-nose – and try to find a legit way to get some credits, work our way into Omega's system. But no one was real interested in us newbies with no reputation, so the whole first day was a depressing bust.

The only plus I got out of it was getting to see so many alien races up close, seeing some for the first time. It was hard not to stare at the fast-talking Salarians, or cringe from the huge, red-eyed Krogan. Didn't see any Drell or Quarian yet, and only one irritated Volus. Vorcha are creepy as hell, and we ALL kept our distance from the one alley stairway where we had seen a couple disappear into. And I nearly pumped my fists in the air and shouted "They do exist!" when I spotted a female Turian in one of the shops.

The day hadn't been totally boring since on our way back to the shuttle Fred had called across the link to inform us that a group of 'dumbbells' was trying to hijack them. He sounded more amused than worried but we hurried back anyway and sent the would-be-hijackers (only three) running just by staring them down in silence and me abruptly shouting "BOO!" Poor little dumbbells…

I pulled myself out of my mindless reminiscing when I sensed extreme hostility nearby- it was harder to anticipate dangers since the whole place is dangerous and nearly everyone here has a higher level of hostility and whatnot. But this I could feel was directed at us and it was getting closer.

Carver's eyes flashed to the left and he murmured, "Our friends are back."

Damn – should've known they wouldn't just leave off, the stubborn asses. They had said they would be back, but seriously, ugh. Better to just ignore them until they either left or forced the issue. Forcing the issue was definitely more likely, I thought with a sigh, as they had already proven themselves to be a bunch of idiots when they had … 'introduced' themselves yesterday.

"I see you decided to ignore my generous offer of warning," the high, nasal voice of Albi sneered to the sound of guns already being drawn.

Lovely.

"Do you really want to push this Albi?" Carver asked with a sigh as the four of us turned to face them. We had split into smaller groups, dividing classes as evenly as possible and rotating who stayed with the ship. My group consisted of me, Carver, Dorian and Adria.

"Ha! You losers are outnumbered three-to-one and you still think you can win?" Albi laughed mockingly, his ragtag gang laughing with him. More than there were yesterday, there had been only nine then. And he seems to have appropriated more weapons – still not all of his men had them, but there were seven gun-wielders rather than only four.

This could be a problem if it turned into a gunfight. Not for us, necessarily, but again he had picked a fight in a crowded market area instead of ambushing us in a secluded place. I think he likes the audience, though the way we drove him off yesterday had to have been humiliating. I looked between him and Dorian again and bit my lip to keep from laughing again – huge hulking Dorian vs. spindly little Albi was just too funny to picture, especially since Albi really thought he and his buddies could take him.

"Yeah we can still win – just because you have more people and more guns doesn't mean you know how to use any of them," Adria snapped back. She had a particular distaste for these guys after one had asked her to give him a table-dance for some quick money.

"Well let's see about that then, shall we?" Albi sneered, and the seven brought their guns up while the other five took fighting stances.

They didn't get to do much more than that before the four of us had dashed forward, immediately closing the distance and focusing on the gunmen: Adria threw caution to the wind and zapped two guys at once with her cuffs, making them holler and drop their guns as they twitched from the shock and collapsed; Carver was more subtle, still using his shock but just to get them to release their weapons and then doing a sweep-kick to take two off their feet; Dorian just barreled right in to Albi and they collided with the unfortunate weenie behind them and he cracked their heads together for good measure, sufficiently knocking them out cold within seconds; I just got the last one, though it was a good thing since Wes still insisted we not use our Biotics unless we absolutely had to and after getting in the guy's face and head butting him I punched him in the stomach, knocking him on his back when he doubled over and yanked the gun out of his hands, sitting on his stomach and aiming his weapon at his surprised face.

This happened very quickly and the five unarmed men were gaping where they stood; the only movement they had made was to stumble out of the way. Now Dorian slowly stood and faced them, standing tall and glaring menacingly as he cracked his knuckles and flexed his arms with a creepy grin. Two of the younger men let out undignified whimpers and ran into the crowd and the other three scattered when Adria stood next to the Soldier, electricity crackling around her hands. Carver and I were still keeping guns aimed at our guys as we hadn't actually knocked them out, and they were bug-eyed and staring down the gun barrels, waiting to see what we were going to do.

The four of us looked at each other and back at our 'captives', and back at each other.

"So, uh, what're we supposed to do now?" I asked. I didn't know the protocol for whatever this was, and it looked like none of them did either.

"You could, uh, y'know, just…let us go?" the guy I was sitting on suggested hopefully.

We looked at each other again and noticed that most of the crowd was just going about their business, no longer real entertained.

*_Well unless we plan on shooting them, letting them go is really the only option,_* I said to Dorian with a mental sigh.

*_Yeah, yeah, but let's leave them with a little warning, shall we?_*

I raised a brow at him and he grinned wickedly before grabbing the front of Albi's shirt and slapping his cheek repeatedly, giving a sharp whistle. Albi jumped and blinked rapidly, squinting to focus his eyes. They widened when he saw Dorian's face and he tried to pull away but the Soldier gripped him tighter.

"Now now, we're not having any of that – you picked this fight, remember? We warned you, but you insisted. That makes you an idiot. And do you know what Omega does to idiots? It kills them. I don't know how long you've been here, but I'm shocked you've survived this long."

Albi gulped and his remaining buddies didn't look too happy either. Dorian, on the other hand, was clearly enjoying himself:

"We could either kill you now and put everyone out of a fate of prolonged misery and annoyance… or you can leave, and be good boys from now on. Pulling shit like today is only going to get you killed. Capiche?"

But Albi was trying to put his 'brave face' back on, not appreciating Dorian telling him what to do, "S'pose we leave, how're you to know we're 'good boys'? Seems to me as I can do what I please where I -"

I grinned as I watched Dorian lean in real close and growl in his face, "Because we'll be watching. We have eyes and ears all over this galaxy, and no matter where you go, we can find you."

Then he abruptly shoved him back to the floor and stood, glaring down at him. Albi scrambled to his feet and we let the rest run off with him.

They didn't get very far before shots rang out and Albi and two others dropped.

We turned to see people very quickly getting out of the way of another group of people striding confidently towards us. The leader, a Turian, held a sniper rifle easily at his side. Chills went up my spine at what I felt from them – these guys were clearly the real deal, and known around here.

They came to a stop about ten feet from the four of us - an Asari, two other Turians, two Salarians, and a Batarian - and I could see they each had a matching black symbol on a red band on the left shoulder of their armor, a kind of spiky twisted spiral with a long tail. Their armor matched, too, though the leader's was black and grey rather than grey and white

Dorian demanded angrily, "What the hell did you do that for?"

The leader smirked, "I couldn't really just let you let them leave – you're softer than you appear."

"I do beg your pardon, but who hell are you and what do you want?" I interjected politely.

"My apologies," the Turian said, bowing sarcastically, keeping his eyes on me all the while, using the same polite tone, "Radak Thoros, leader of the Nebula Nine, here to eradicate the measly little humans who keep trying to stick their ugly little noses into _my_ territory."

It was much more intimidating when he said it than when Albi had. I was feeling sick to my stomach again. Dammit. Just can't catch a break, can we.

"'Eradicate' is a bit of a strong word -" Carver started and was interrupted by Thoros shooting at Adria.

I reacted purely on instinct, throwing up a quick Barrier, and then immediately pulling it down when the Turian's eyes went wide and then narrowed, "So, a Biotic, huh? That makes things much more interesting."

Aaand here we go again.

I dropped into a crouch, ready to take whatever offensive or defensive action necessary. My gun was back on my hip – I would use it if I had to , but now I'd used my Biotics again I was feeling uber twitchy and my skin was tingling. I _needed_ to use some of this energy or I was going to go 'Boom'.

"You think you can take us?" Dorian asked, stepping forward.

Thoros stepped forward, too, snorting "We're seven to four, none of you have backup weapons, shields, or armor. I don't care that you could handle those losers – you're dead."

Dorian shrugged and I threw up a wall barrier as they opened fire. They were forced to take cover behind some crates as we retaliated and I was able to let off some seriously energized Throws; the four of us closed the distance almost instantly, knowing we were at a disadvantage, dodging bullets and forcing them into close combat, leaping at them over the crates.

These guys weren't like the others we'd fought so far – for one thing, they had armor; for another, they were clearly trained and hardened and could quite possibly kick our butts if we weren't careful. And them kicking our butts equated dying, so we _really_ needed to be careful.

I had to focus solely on my opponent – it was similar to the Arena, no time to think, just react. My leap landed me into a startled Salarian and we rolled back from the others, him trying to grapple with me but I blew him off and away with Biotics, forcing him down with a few more hits before two hands grabbed me from behind and I let the Asari spin me around, head-butting her and cracking my pistol against the back of her neck.

She grunted in pain but rolled away and to her feet, coming at me again and I let out an all-over-body blast, blowing her gun out of her hands and knocking her to the floor, as well as some of the combatants behind me.

The gunshots and yelling and pain I could hear and feel around me was worrying – focused on my opponents as I was, I couldn't tell who it was getting hurt. Except I keenly felt when Dorian got a Turian's claw in his back, I'm pretty sure anyone on the link felt that.

My brain had just enough extra room to notice my Biotics were not acting precisely as they should and I was tiring faster than I remembered, but I'd have to revisit that later.

The Salarian shot at me from where he still lay on the ground; we were still barefoot and I was unable to keep a proper Barrier up so had to 'dance' and was off-balance when the Asari tackled me. I conked my head on the metal floor and had to use all my concentration to Biotic-Punch her off, roll onto my back, and Punch her again in mid-air, hurling her at the Salarian and they collided hard.

I tried to catch my breath as I jumped to my feet, but my 'danger' sensor went off and I automatically ducked the bullet that nearly hit me in the face and swung around in a crouch as Thoros barreled into me. Now all my attention was on keeping his damned claws off me as we grappled. He seemed surprise by how strong I was and I was startled to find myself having a flashback to Saren and panic spiked, my Biotics reacting and popping all around me and I couldn't get them under control so it didn't have much effect on the Turian gang leader except to make him flinch a little.

Something flitted across the link but I couldn't understand what; but it distracted me enough that Thoros got a solid hold on me, using one arm and his legs to incapacitate me, his other arm was coming up with his gun… I did the first desperate thing that popped into my head, twisting my neck as best I could and clamping my teeth on his throat, biting hard just above his armor lining.

The Turian froze and I felt and heard his snarling growl. Now that was just weird, this whole thing was weird now that I really could think about it. When was the last time I bit someone? It's not like I had any intention of ripping the guy's throat out, so what was I supposed to do now?

I could hear shouting around us, I think to us, but it was all at once and hard to understand, especially given the state of my head. Of course I couldn't very well say anything without risking Thoros taking the opp and blowing my head off, but he didn't have that issue. From my angle I could just barely see as he opened his mouth to talk – I bit down harder and whatever he was about to say was choked off. I felt his throat spasm and then he hissed, high and sharp and angry.

I hissed back vehemently, catching him by surprise and I experienced surprise as well – the jaw movement I made to hiss had added just enough pressure so my teeth just barely broke his tough, leathery skin. I didn't think much of it at first, concentrating on both sides snarling at the other to stand down and get one of us to release the other.

Neither Thoros or I was budging though, just growling and hissing at each other and other's comments. Then I felt something wet touch my lower lip. I crinkled my nose and frowned, then grunted in disgust as I realized the warm sticky stuff was his blood and I relaxed my lips back over my teeth, weirding myself out as I had to press them against his skin to keep his blood from getting _IN_ my mouth, which would just be _beyond_ disgusting, this was all bad enough, but – just _EW_. I did _NOT _mean to do this, I would never…

*_Wrap this up PLEASE, this is GROSS!_* I hollered to Dorian, who gave a slight nod. His twitch of a smile was annoying, but I didn't distract him further as he needed to concentrate on aiming as he talked:

"Obviously things didn't go quite the way either of us planned, so why not just let us leave -"

"Ah to hell with that! You're still outnumbered here, we can -"

"Look, your boss there said you keep in their place, right? Shoot'em down if they get uppity?"

"Exactly, and _you -_"

"We were just defending ourselves from those other idiots! We're just here looking for work, that's it"

"She's threatening to rip his throat out!"

"He's got a bloody gun to her head, what d'you expect?!"

I was becoming extraordinarily impatient as more blood trickled onto my face and I gave a frustrated huff.

"We'll leave if you want us to, but he has to let Megan go first," Adria said in a hard voice.

There was silence and I knew why – Thoros was the boss, and none of the lackeys wanted to make the decision for him.

"We can't just -" the Asari started but Thoros suddenly let out a loud, primal snarl and I felt him move, but couldn't tell what he was doing. I kept my hold tight and changed my hiss to a low, impatient growl.

I could feel Dorian's smugness, "I think your boss is with us on this one."

'_PLEASE!' _I thought, wanting nothing more than to get the heck up and find some freekin Listerine. Or whatever.

The gang leader gave another growl, quieter, sounding more exasperated than anything else. I'm guessing he was a bit sick of this as well and both of us were relieved when everyone put their guns away. But I wasn't stupid enough to relax as Thoros still had a tight grip on me and his gun was still pressed against the side of my head.

"Let her go, Thoros," Carver said warningly.

"Get her off his neck and he will," the Asari chided.

Right, so he could go ahead and blow my head off. Nope!

"Put the gun up at least!" Adria snapped in agitation.

I wasn't sure he would, but slowly the pistol moved away and was set on the floor. I still didn't move and neither did he. How annoying. Then very, very slowly, his grip on me relaxed just a smidge. Enough for me to adjust to be able to bolt, so I did, and then eased my grip on his throat; I sensed his movement and was ready, both of us springing away from the other.

I landed in a low crouch in front of the other Subjects and he was rolling to his feet, glaring at me.

Guns were back in hand, but when the Asari opened her mouth, Thoros held a talon out to silence her:

"I admit, that was more impressive than I expected. You humans certainly are… different."

His flanging voice was much quieter and at the last word his silver eyes settled on me and I fought the urge to wipe my mouth and face off as his mandibles twitched. Though I couldn't tell if it was in irritation or… amusement.

Seeing the small crescents on his throat and the blue blood made me feel nauseous, but I refused to react until we were gone. So I waited.

After a long moment of him studying my face and me staring back, he nodded to his followers and they put up their guns again. My three companions followed their example and it was a tense moment until the Turian jerked his chin at us, "Get out, and I'd better not see you butting into my business again."

And he turned and walked off, not even looking back over his shoulder. The rest of the Nines were clearly agitated and a bit surprised that he turned his back to us so easily, and they backed away cautiously, as did we.

We let the milling market crowds get between us before turning and hurrying off to collapse behind a stall manned by a few Asari, who ignored us.

I was wiping my mouth frantically with my forearm, spitting and positively disgusted at having a small bit of his blood dripping in when I had moved. I spit, blew raspberries and buzzed my lips while the others laughed weakly, relief making us all rather giddy.

"That was a close one," Carver sighed.

'Too close,' I thought. I wasn't badly hurt, but Dorian was really bad off, beaten and bloody with two black eyes forming and his jaw and cheek swollen, not to mention the wound on his back. Adria had been grazed by a bullet on her leg and was nursing her left wrist. Carver looked rather dazed and kept blinking and shaking his head, and was also fairly beat up.

I spat one last time and grimaced, "We look even worse than before."

*_We're almost there, are you guys okay now?!_* came Isis' worried tone, and I could feel the others listening in.

*_Yeah, yes, we are okay_* Dorian tried to reassure her, but they all knew better than to trust either of us when they could feel how bad we were.

*_We'll be there in just a minute or so, stay put!_*

Hmm, I guess that thing I felt on the link was either Dorian contacting them, or them trying to contact us. Probably the latter. And thank goodness, cuz we likely couldn't make it back to the shuttle without being harassed aga – what was that?

I froze and took another deep breath through my nose. That smell, cutting through all the others now that I was searching for it. It was – no way. I couldn't believe it. My mouth was watering already and I stood, sniffing expectantly and moving forward.

"Megan, what're you doing?" Dorian asked tiredly.

"Can't you smell that?" I asked in a hushed, excited voice.

Carver frowned, "Smell what?"

Adria breathed in deeply, "I don't – oooh wait, is that…?"

"It is."

"Oh my gosh! _Where is it?!_"

"What are you girls talking about?" Dorian asked, exasperated.

We didn't answer except to wave at them to follow as we followed the scent.

"Guys, we told Thoros we were leaving!" Carver reminded us.

"They went the other way, and it's not like we're doing anything disruptive, we're just -" I stopped in front of a small shop with a fancy front and tall, shelved displays.

Adria and I nearly had our noses pressed against the glass of the display that read 'Assorted Chocolate Delights'.

"Oh good Lord." The boys rolled their eyes at us.

If I was any less dignified I'd be drooling. I'm a certifiable chocoholic, and these looked and smelled sooooo good!

"Ah, welcome! Can I interest you in any of our confections?"

I swiveled to look at the cheery Salarian who had come up to us.

"Good sir, I am quite interested in your confections, but alas, we have no means with which to obtain them," I answered somewhat mournfully…don't judge me.

Next to me Adria sighed – she too understood that we couldn't go wasting what few credits we had on chocolate. Necessities first. The phrase 'Life's uncertain – eat dessert first' popped into my head, but I ignored it.

The Salarian looked rather bewildered, but amused; his eyes wandered to Carver and Dorian, "Perhaps your men would be able to purchase them for you? If I understand human custom, the male is supposed to purchase gifts for his mate -"

_Ehh?!_

"Whoa, wait a-"

"Nonono, we're not -"

"It's not like -"

"Oh no, that's -"

All four of us started talking at once, gesturing and waving at one another in a confusion of denial. The Salarian blinked rapidly in surprise at our reactions, "Oh, my apologies. Misunderstanding."

"Well they are going around two-by-two, so it's an easy mistake to make," came Isis' voice from behind him.

She and the others were grinning at us as they walked up – I know my face was red; Adria was pink in the face, rubbing her arm; Carver was blushing and shuffling his feet; Dorian was just grinning and shaking his head like it was all hilarious.

The Salarian nodded to Isis, "I am no expert on human mating customs, of course. Merely noted that you are very protective of one another, seem very close."

"Oh we are, just – just not quite like that," Carver answered, trailing off.

The Salarian was looking us over more closely, noticing the matching outfits, bare feet, cuffs, disheveled appearances and injuries, and finally, our tattoos. He was clearly very curious and the scrutiny was making me uncomfortable.

"We get all kinds here on Omega, but you are certainly a different sort of human, yes. Saw the way you handled Thoros and his gang – very impressive."

We nodded thanks to his compliment and Isis spoke up again *_We should go before your new Turian friend decides to check up on you._*

Before we could respond, the merchant spoke again, "If you would agree, could give you the chocolates in return for a favor performed."

YES! I opened my mouth to say so but Dorian said warily, "What kind of favor? You should know up front we're not killers for hire or the like."

"Of course, of course – also saw you let the one called 'Albi' and others go. Understand have higher morals than many mercenaries. Difficult to hold to here on Omega. Not to worry, is merely security detail only, very minor I assure you. Will pay as well, maybe further jobs in future."

We had a quick consultation over the link with those on the ship – this would be a chance to boost our reputation, maybe get others the tentative job offers they had received for later dates…

Dorian nodded, "We'll hear you out."

The Salarian nodded excitedly, waving the other worker to the front to take over, "My thanks! I am Lordre Meisin – please, come inside and I will give you the details."

We let the others on the ship know what was up and followed him into the back of the small shop.


	21. Ch21: For Love of Chocolate

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect! I claim my OCs!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 21

* * *

**A/N: Here's another long one.. they all seem to be long ones now :) I hope you all enjoy and please let me know what you think!  
**

**_*FOR LOVE OF CHOCOLATE*_**

I fidgeted as we sat in the shuttle, waiting for it to be time to go. The four designated as 'ambush backup' – Dorian, Carver, Isis, and Josh – had gone ahead over an hour ago to stake out the warehouse landing site and be there in hiding in case anything went wrong.

Dorian had wanted to be part of Lordre's escort – me, Wes, Adria, and James – but the Salarian wanted us looking tough and scary, intimidating. With how beat up Dorian was, Lordre assumed others would see that as an easier target. But Lordre did want the four of us he'd first met to be involved in the job, so Dorian relented, especially since his Cellmate would be with him.

"Stop it Meg," Wes admonished quietly.

I frowned, then sighed, dropping my left arm. I hadn't even realized I'd been rubbing my right arm again. But I couldn't help it – it was itchy, and I felt weird without the bandages, self-conscious. Lordre had wanted to know what they were covering and since they were fairly healed already, I hadn't much minded showing him. His eyes had got real big and his blinking rapid as he looked over the severe slashes.

And Adria had declared that they were healed enough for me to lose the bandages, let them 'air out' as she put it. Lordre had been nice enough to provide us with some medical supplies for us to take back to the shuttle. It was good for everyone previously and recently injured to get some treatment. Adria handled the most serious injuries, having a medical background.

I actually kind of … hid while the others were treated… I don't do well with other people's hurts, at least not when it comes to really treating them. I get the heebie-jeebies seeing some of them, and blood still freaks me out a bit. Somehow I still manage to be an OCD germaphobe. Except with my Cell. They don't bother me, like my family didn't… luckily Wes is still fine and 'hid' with me, keeping an arm around my shoulders so I wouldn't feel too bad.

My puncture wound was also healing nicely, but still kept a square of bandage and wrap to avoid complications, like pulling on it and reopening it. My arm just got a light cleaning and fresh medigel. I looked at my arm again, twisting it around – the worst injuries I've had so far (along with my stomach of course - yeeg) – so even after everything I've seen it's a bit weird to look at.

Back home I'd never had any serious injury, just some super bruises, cat scratches, and burns from working fast food.

The slashes were red and scabbed over, the skin inflamed and puffy. Not nasty looking, but not pretty either. It would be quite tender to the touch if I didn't have it numbed, which is why I was able to rub it without thinking 'OW!'. But I could feel it just enough for it to itch. Ugh.

My own injuries have never bothered me – I actually find them rather fascinating, watching how they heal, how to make them stop bleeding, or at least slow it down, the progression of the hurt setting in… yeah, I'm odd, and I'm not sure when that particular trait got started. Having a high pain threshold helps too.

But my arm didn't hurt. It was clean, no infections, though it would definitely be leaving some scars. Just not sure how severe those will be, given our boosted healing capabilities.

Wes' cuff beeped three times and he stood, pulling me up with him, "Time to go."

Our group – the four of us plus Loran, who was tagging along to hang out at Lordre's shop – rechecked our equipment and headed out. Each of us now had two weapons, our extras scavenged from the streets of Omega. I still had my pistol and had taken a shotgun as my backup. That had gotten me some raised eyebrows, but I just shrugged:

"It's the only other gun I have any experience with." Very limited experience, mind you.

"And it's good for hitting people with." That they understood. I like hitting things.

* * *

"Greetings! Meisin is inside; I will retrieve him!" Lordre's partner – cousin, I think – greeted us as we arrived while he was closing up the front of the shop and ducked inside.

"He called him 'Meisin', I thought his name is 'Lordre'," Loran commented.

"Salarians go by either of two names, clan or given. 'Lordre' is his clan name, 'Meisin' is his given name," James explained, "I suppose members of the same clan would find it odd to call each other the same name."

"Ah, okay. Kinda like Japanese people."

"Uh – yeah, sure, why not?"

While they talked I was flattening my hair again, or trying to, wanting it to at least be a little under control. I was afraid it was impossible without a good cleaning and a tough brush, but I could try –

"What are you doing back here?" an angry female voice demanded.

Crap. We turned from facing the shop to see an Asari headed for us. But not the same Asari as had been with Thoros earlier, though she was wearing the Nebula Nine armor and such. This one had a more intricate design across her forehead and cheeks and was a darker blue. And I got the feeling she's more important than the others Thoros had been patrolling with earlier. Like a sub-boss.

She reached us, continuing to glare suspiciously.

"You're not supposed to be here, Humans," she sneered.

"They are here per my request, Ashanu, not to bother you," came Lordre's answer as he joined us.

"And what do you want with them?" she demanded, facing him but keeping us in her peripheral.

"They're here to help me with that problem I kept coming to _you_ about, and they were willing to do it for a much lower cost than you and Thoros wanted," Lordre snapped impatiently, "They will not be here long so there is no need for you to interfere."

The Asari's eyes moved over us as she considered, lingering on my talon-slashed arm before returning to Lordre, "Thoros will hear of this, but it can keep until I get back. But know, if they cause any trouble we _will_ retaliate."

"But of course."

With that, Ashanu gave us one last glare and resumed her patrol, or whatever it was she was doing. Man, all the Asari here were so different than sweet little Mayla on Elysium…

"Uh, how'd she know who we are?" James asked.

"Our tattoos, I would assume, and our outfits," Wes answered with a shrug.

"We do kind of stand out," Adria added, "Even amongst all this… chaos."

"Quite," Lordre agreed, then looked to me and Adria, "Ah, I brought these out for you. Perhaps you could use them for your hair?"

He held out two red, wide cloth ribbons. Adria and I took them gratefully.

*_He's giving you a hair ribbon?_* Wes asked, his eyebrow slightly raised.

*_I think he's worried the crazy mass will obstruct our view_* I answered as I yanked my hair back and up a bit, and Wes actually tied the ribbon for me – no bow of course, just a crisscross with a knot thing – and Adria just tied hers loosely behind her neck.

Lordre nodded in approval and then we left the market, the Salarian leading the way with us four Subjects falling in behind and around him.

* * *

The pickup point was nearly on the opposite side of the asteroid and down a tier, so it was a good walk. And while we walked, we talked, Lordre asking us a bunch of questions: where'd we come from, who we were, how did we get our special abilities, our 'uniforms' as he called them, the cuffs, etc…

We were mostly honest, refusing to answer some, and didn't go into any real detail. Just that we were being experimented on and had recently escaped with absolutely nothing on us. We only gave him a general idea of what the experiments had been, or rather, the end results.

We didn't tell him how many Subjects there had been, that we weren't the only ones; the significance of our tattoos; the Arena; the 'Project Darwin' title; Saren; especially not about the link… that wasn't his business. None of it was really, but we didn't see any harm in merely confirming some of what he already suspected.

When he did keep asking questions, James was the first to snap at him to 'Butt out!'

I tried to jump in and say something more tactful, but the Salarian held his hands up, "Understand, understand. Is a touchy subject, I apologize."

He was so clearly regretful that James sighed, "Yeah, well, sorry for snapping. As you said, it's a touchy subject."

The topic moved to casual chatter about our surroundings, us Subjects still keeping our eyes and ears open – and our 'sense' for me and Wes.

*_This is booooriiiing_* Dorian groaned, Isis quickly following up with a swat – both physical and mental. *_OW! Oh come on, you all know it is. All we've been doing since we got here is sit and do nothing._*

Isis' tone was exasperated *_Yes, because scouting the area, blocking off multiple routes and positioning ourselves strategically is doing _nothing.*

*_Alright, sorry, I'm just getting antsy sitting here and waiting._*

*_We know, but we should be almost there._* Wes answered.

*_Yeah, and it's not like there's anything going on with us either -_* I started but cut off when the back of my neck prickled and I knew someone was watching me.

I stopped completely and looked around, trying to pinpoint where the feeling had come from. But while there were plenty of people around, I couldn't tell who it had been, if it was even anyone in eyesight. And the feeling was completely gone now. Dangit.

"What is it?" Adria asked, everyone scanning the area.

Lordre looked nervous and confused, "Did you see something?"

"Um – I'm not sure, no, I just… thought I felt someone watching me…" I trailed off, narrowing my eyes as I saw a young woman glance at our group from over her shoulder before disappearing into a shadowed alley.

"Okay, think I saw her, but she's gone. Have you ever had trouble _before_ the pick up before?" I asked, frowning.

Lordre shook his head, "Never before, always after. Usually _AT_ the delivery site. This is… unnerving."

"Maybe… a scout or something? Seeing where you are, following you?" Adria offered.

"Hmm – is possible; I may not have noticed before…"

"Actually, it may not be about him," James said thoughtfully.

Oh? Well that couldn't be good… "You mean watching the four of _us_?"

James nodded. There was silence for a moment.

"Unnerving indeed," Wes muttered, running a hand through his hair.

Lordre was ringing his hands nervously as we stood there, and he was clearly relieved when we told him we were ready to continue if he was. He nodded happily and we continued, though Wes and I continued to discuss the possibilities:

*_Wes, do you think it was someone who… knows who we are?_*

*_There's no way to be sure. Did you recognize her at all?_*

*_No, and I didn't feel any hostility or anything, just that she was watching us._*

He frowned *_You connected that much in such a short time?_*

*_Not so much 'connected', I think I just kinda look for that automatically. Though she may have been too far away for me to be real reliable._*

*_Hmm… well we'll see I suppose. It is possible that she was watching us, but because of our association with Lordre, trying to figure out what kind of threat we could be._*

*_Oh that's a good point. Let's hope that's it, and that we have sufficiently intimidated them into wariness so they'll leave us completely alone._*

Doubtful, but you never know. We were about to share this revelation when my neck prickled again.

*_Shit – Wes, someone's watching us again, they're moving towards us, trying to hide, but it's someone else…_*

"Guards up, there's someone following us," Wes ordered, and we pulled our guns out. Wes seemed surprised that I was already planning on using mine, but I still wasn't sure if my Biotics were okay or not, and better safe than sorry. I would use them only if I had to until I determine what was going on.

I couldn't see anyone obvious, so the person was definitely hiding from us. We moved around the Salarian to keep him safe in the middle and I held my pistol ready as I looked up, down and around, trying to find him…

There!

I darted forward and knocked the top crate off a stack, sticking my gun in his surprised face. Now I was surprised, holding a hand out to stop the others from attacking him as they came up and I exclaimed:

"You're the guy I sat on!"

And it was, the dork from Albi's gang. He looked both scared and sheepish as he looked up at me form where he had fallen backwards.

"What the heck are you doing following us?" Adria demanded, recognizing him as well.

Rolling my eyes I put my gun away and reached down to pull him to his feet as he stuttered and stammered over his answer:

"I – I wasn't – I mean I _was,_ uh, following you, I mean, I j-just, uh…"

Wes sighed, "_Why_ are you following us? It's already obvious that you have been, we just want to know why."

The young man flushed, "R-right, um… y-you guys are in trouble. I mean, there's this group of people, aliens too, they uh, are, um, waiting for you, I heard'em say it back, uh…"

Lord have mercy this guy is about to have a nervous breakdown… I tried to calm him:

"Just chill for a second, okay? None of us are going to hurt you -"

"Yet."

"James! Oi. So there's some kind of ambush, yes? You heard some people talk about it. Why tell us?"

He looked confused, "Well… I mean I figured someone should warn you. Ambushes tend to be, y'know… bad. And they were talking nasty so…"

"Kid, what's your name?" Wes jumped in when the guy trailed off again. 'Kid', hah, the guy's probably same age or older than us, and Wes is calling him 'Kid'. Though Wes is a bit more grown up than others, so I guess it works.

"Oh – Terris. Terris Meraine."

"Okay, Terris, we know there could be trouble on this trip – that's sort of why we're here. We appreciate the warning, but do you have any other information? Where, how many?"

"And why were you hiding from us? Couldn't you have just come up and said 'Hey!' before we left the district?" James asked.

Poor Lordre was just standing there, alternating looking at us and looking ahead at where we were supposed to be going.

*_Wes we really should just go or we might get Lordre into trouble or something. Or at least make him not like us so much anymore._*

But Terris answered that question fairly quickly: "I do know where! Not exactly how many, but I know it's cuz they think you're 'fresh meat' as they called it and they're lookin' to nab whatever it is you're after. And I didn't come up right away cuz I had to make sure none of them were around, y'know, so they wouldn't just … shoot me."

"Talk while we walk," Wes answered, motioning for him to come with us.

Terris was surprised, and so were Lordre and James. But the Salarian was happy to be going again, even if there was an ambush waiting somewhere along the line. James just seemed to find this new guy annoying and didn't want him tagging along.

"They don't plan to come at you 'til you've got the stuff – ingredients and some tech wasn't it? I think they want some for drugs or whatnot. Anyway, they'll be dressed normal and just hanging around, then jump you, demand the stuff or they'll kill people. Basic mugging I guess, but I've seen their work before and it is nasty. They don't care who they plow through to get what they want."

Lordre was looking more worried now, "Does not sound like those I have dealt with before – they just wanted money, extra 'pay offs' to leave me alone. Never wanted it all, and were not overly violent. Tried to never give them cause to make too much fuss, but …"

"It may be you hiring us that got them to up their game. Or it's someone else. If this guy doesn't have anything else, we'll just have to wait and see," James said with a shrug.

Given the look the Salarian gave him, I don't think Lordre is overly fond of James and his bluntness.

Terris just flushed and looked nervous again, casting his eyes all around. I knew it was just from paranoia though – I hadn't detected a lie in anything he had said, so was currently inclined to believe him. With a pang I thought it would be nice to have Marvin there – he could tell us whether Terris was trying to hide something or not.

* * *

The four of us milled around while Lordre talked to the deliverymen, discussing payment and transport assistance – two of the Salarians would be joining us on the way back, as per usual.

Dorian and the others were still hidden, keeping an eye on the situation. We had told Terris to go back, thanking him for his help but that we could handle it. Especially given how we had seen him in action, and were worried it might be more difficult with him there. I had said this as tactfully as possible, and while he was clearly embarrassed he had nodded in agreement and went on his way.

Everything was unloaded from the shuttle and we started back, the hiding four sneaking around to leave through another door, intending to join us outside. We walked out into the hustle and bustle but before the others joined us, a very tall, rugged looking older man stepped out in front of us, hands hanging at his side.

"Good evening Lordre – I see you've brought a few tag-a-longs this time," he said, his voice was smooth and malicious.

The Salarian nodded brightly, "Indeed! Why, it was becoming quite frustrating not being able to make the trip safely."

"I know, this place can be so … inhospitable."

"Hm, quite. Very useful, having an escort."

"Yes… though I can't help but wonder how on earth you plan on _paying_ these good people. I was under the impression your business wasn't booming quite yet."

So it _was_ because we were here that they were going to be making a bigger presence. And though his tone was conversational, the threat in the man's voice was clear.

"How I pay people is no longer any of your business, Helms," Lordre said calmly.

The man smiled coldly and we drew our guns – and like, ten people of multiple races stepped out of the shadows or turned from whatever 'normal' stuff they'd been doing. Crap, I hadn't sensed that many being connected to this guy.

*_Uh, yeah, you guys might want to make yourselves known sooner rather than later_* I suggested to the others.

*_On it!_*Josh replied.

The man was apparently talking again, "So you can either walk away now or throw your lot in with the Salarians."

Well I'd missed something, but it didn't matter: A few blurs of movement and the other four dropped down around us, guns up and aiming, Carver already zapping sparks around his cuffs.

Helms laughed, "Ah, they know how to play! But do they know the rules?"

Adria snorted, "And just what will you do when we don't bugger off?"

Helms just smirked and flicked his right hand.

We waited – nothing happened. Helms frowned, as did many of those with him.

He flicked his hand again, apparently supposed to be giving some sort of signal. Still nothing happened.

"Problem, Helms?" Lordre asked, still in a cheery tone.

The man glared but his head snapped to look left as we all heard a holler and crashing thumps as someone was shoved out of the rafters and tumbled down a sloped portion of the wall, banging off pipes and protrusions and landing in a pile of garbage.

"Oh – someone you know?" Wes asked casually.

I was wondering who had taken out the sniper – all of us were here. It was a good thing he had been taken care of, too, cuz a sniper could've seriously screwed us over.

Two shots from the rafters made Helms dance back to avoid getting his feet shot. Of course there was retaliation as they assumed we'd done it, and I think they planned on shooting us all anyway, and everyone started shooting and whatnot.

And we got another new experience when both their Asari companions started using their Biotics. They threw their energy at us and me and Josh blocked them as best we could, jumping to the front to deal with them, keep Barriers up. And even with our Biotics acting up again, we were able to keep them at bay, especially thanks to the sniper-hijacker making random shots into the bad guys. Though if our Biotics would actually work how they were supposed to, we could've blown these suckers away by now!

But we were in a bad position to deal with this many enemies with such little cover and the three Salarians weren't there to fight. Carver had thought ahead and when the first shot was fired had jumped to the back.

A whoosh and bright tone behind us and Carver shouted for us to get through the door, the Salarians pushing their cargo in first while we provided cover. We backed through, alternating cover and I was one of the last with Wes, who clapped a sparking hand to the controls so the doors closed and locked as soon as we were through.

Okay, that didn't go so well.

"Alright, what's the plan? What do we do now?" Dorian asked.

"No idea," Wes muttered, looking around.

"We need to go ahead and draw them in here – there's plenty of cover and we can go to higher ground, right?" James offered.

"Lordre, how hard would it be to get these guys to talk instead of shoot?" Wes asked.

All three Salarians were clearly shaken and Lordre shook his head emphatically, "Don't talk, is why always paid them off before. They know -" he motioned at the other two – "Wants what he wants, will do whatever to get it, is his job. Doesn't care. None of them do. Small-time mercenaries like them, they just want their payment."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"So… I guess this is where the 'kill or be killed' concept comes in?" Isis said hesitantly.

Dammit. Damn the damn mercs and their damn, greedy selves. Another reason why Omega was a stupid idea. Too much of this kinda crap – isn't this all Omega is? Crap? Stupid, thieving idiots really weren't leaving us much choice. I mean, we could beat them down and run them off. Or at least try. But they weren't just going to give up because we scare them off or give them a good fight.

They were clearly the bad guys here, and, well… did we not realize that this was how things were going to be here? Isn't this why some were worried about coming here? I should've known better. Yes we can do more, but so can everyone else. There are no rules to play by, because there are no rules here.

But we had to do our job here; we had to survive, and protect Lordre, and the two with him. We can't just let ourselves get killed now, not after all the crap we've already been through. And… it's not like we haven't killed people already. I'm sure some of those guards died on that station, the workers and scientists too. I – we hadn't let ourselves think about it, focus on it. We hadn't done it on purpose, we were just trying to stay alive.

So today, and tomorrow, we just had to try and stay alive. And, mercs know what they're signing up for, don't they? They choose to put their lives on the line for stuff like this. So it's not like we're going to be killing a bunch of innocent people.

Yeah, trying to rationalize doesn't make me feel any less sick to my stomach at the thought of just… killing people. I don't like it. It makes me sad.

"You can handle them, yes?" one of the other Salarians asked expectantly.

We looked at each other, "Well, yes, but…"

"You are mercenaries as well, are you not? You have fought before?" the second other asked in confusion.

The first was still ringing his hands and Lordre appeared uncertain and uncomfortable with the questions, as he knew how new we are to the field. They watched us, waiting for an answer.

My brain was whirring again – are we mercenaries? Again, not the specific purpose of what we planned, but I guess that is what we are, hiring ourselves out like this. What else would we be? Bodyguards? Still mercenaries, in a way. Unintentional as it might have been, we put ourselves out there…

But we can be good mercs, right? Not like these guys, or the other scumbags running around the galaxy. We could be good guys, yes we could. Help people, only fight with the bad guys.

Right?

"Yes, I suppose we are," Wes finally answered. I don't know how much he felt from me or the others, but what I could feel was fairly the same to my own doubts and hopes.

None of us felt real happy about our new reality, but not much we could do about it. Life's what you make it. So we just had to make it like we wanted it. If we could get back up after Cerberus knocked us down, we could keep our feet here. We got this.

"They're trying to get through the doors," Isis growled in warning.

Great. Wes took charge, first addressing the Salarians:

"Unless you plan on participating in this fight, find a secure place to hole up and wait. Hopefully it won't take too long to get this over with."

The second Salarian raised his hand excitedly, "I have a gun! I can -"

His companion smacked him across the back of his head, "Not a chance, you're coming with me."

Lordre gave us a grateful nod as the three headed into the stacks of crates and storage sheds.

*_You can join in anytime, Meg_* Wes said quietly, only to me.

I suppressed a grin: *_Nah, you got this! Have at it!_*

*_Gee, thanks_*

His wry tone did make me grin that time – he didn't much care for being the one in charge either.

Then he ordered the others around:

"Everyone up on the wares – get as high as you can and still be safe. Make sure you can duck into cover and have decent maneuverability. Meg, Josh, I need you two doing what you can with your Biotics for support. Adria and Carver, zap'em while you shoot, try and charge your shots to have more impact. Isis, Dorian, James – if they get too close we'll need you to engage hand to hand. Work together and let's hope to God that's all of them."

A few minutes later I was thanking God that that was all of them – once we set ourselves up and let them through the door (that's right, _let _them in, they never would've hacked it on their own) they came at us strategically, using their Biotics as cover and trying to draw us out.

We weren't stupid though, so it didn't work. We didn't just coop up and pick them off (though we probably should have) but tried to give them a chance to leave. They never took that chance.

They weren't wearing real armor – tougher clothing, but no suits – so they were easier to hit and more susceptible to the Biotic and Tech energies. But once we realized that minor wounds, electric shocks, and being knocked off their feet truly wouldn't dissuade them, we just let them have it. They still dodged and shot and tried to keep Barriers up, but we definitely had the advantage.

I used mostly my pistol at first, then switched to Biotics. Dorian took care of Helms rather quickly after we got serious – shot him three times and down he went. Carver actually went for one of the Asari and they ended up getting into hand-to-hand for a minute before his electric pulse put her down and then when a Turian was about to get Carver, James charged and snapped his neck. Half of them were down before we realized we had lost track of some of them – only three were still in sight.

Kinda freaking I tried to sense where they were and nearly jumped out of my skin when a human man landed on a crate behind me, throwing something at me that I dodged – a knife? Seriously?! – and I hit him with a blast that smacked him against the wall. A gunshot made me duck and spin to shove a Salarian off the stack and to the floor but the man came up behind me, grabbing my shirt and yanking me to the side, his rifle came up and I shot him in the leg ad used another blast to knock his gun out of his hands.

Frickin' jerk still came at me as I got to my feet and he made another grab for me, grimacing in pain and anger and pulling another knife. I grabbed his wrist to keep it away from me, feeling suddenly lightheaded and unable to organize my thoughts to bring out my Biotics. We struggled and he was immensely surprised that I was stronger than him, forcing him back, trying to wedge my shoulder against his chest to get some leverage…

He made one last desperate move, shoving forward with a yell, making me unsteady and twisting his arm the other way so his knife hand pulled free and before he could stab me I shot him in the chest.

I remember when I first started playing video games, the ones with 'real' killing. The first was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. At first you just run around killing giant rats, spiders and creatures, but then you get to where humans are the bad guys. Killing those fake people bothered me. I didn't like it. But I kept playing games, deciding 'They're not real – they're not really dying, they don't really feel that pain'. So yes, violent video games can desensitize you to violence in video games. Death. Killing. But it doesn't in any way desensitize you to violence in real life. I don't care what crap psychologists spew, killing fake people is _nothing_ like killing real ones.

I felt his breath catch, watched the light fade from his wide, disbelieving eyes, felt the heavy, solid dead weight as the body slumped towards me and hit the ground. I was completely frozen, gun still clutched tightly in my hand, feeling very cold and sick, shaking and staring as the blood seeped out. My mind blanked out and I was getting dizzier.

"Look out!"

Isis' voice jerked me back and I saw one of the mercs – the other Salarian - about to shoot down Wes.

I tried to move, but was only able to lurch to the edge and barely caught myself from falling and sagged in relief when someone shot the merc in the back and Wes jumped down safely to the floor. I looked around; who had shot the merc? Everyone else was either back to ground or on the opposite side of the shot's direction.

All the mercs were down though. Dead. Not a single one had let themselves run away or give up. Probably the only survivor was that sniper.

Keeping my eyes solely where I was going, I climbed down and stood there, scared to meet the others because I would have to walk past more bodies. Thankfully they came to me after surveying the area.

"Everybody okay?" Wes asked, his voice hoarse.

There were nods and murmurs, but no happy 'Yeps!' from anyone.

"Alright, I'm gonna go get the Salarians," Wes muttered, walking away. He paused, "Meg, you come with me."

"M'kay." I barely heard myself mumble and I stumbled after him.

Lordre and the other two were fine, and relieved that none of us had been hurt. The merchant kept looking at me funny though, which made me wonder what I looked like. We were going back – they had hidden well, way back from the fight area – when a sound from above us made Wes bring us to a halt.

Then a head poked out from the top of a stacked trailer and Terris stared down at us with wide eyes:

"You guys okay? They didn't get anyone, did they?"

"You – what are you doing here? I thought you went back," Wes said in bewilderment.

Terris clambered down to us and shuffled his feet, "Well, I just thought y'all might not be A-Okay with all of'em and I'm a pretty good sneaker, so -"

"You took that sniper down," I said in realization.

Wes raised his eyebrows and Terris flushed.

"Well, yeah…"

"And you shot the guy who was gonna shoot Wes." This I posed as a sorta-question, not entirely positive as I was trying very hard to not think too much right then.

Terris was embarrassed, "Crawled through the ducts to get in through the ceiling."

Wes gripped his thin shoulder in gratitude, "You have my thanks. Did you leave the gun?"

"Yeah, I wasn't sure if you might take it to be a threat or somethin' if I came down with it."

"It's alright – go on and grab it and meet us at the door."

The young man nodded and climbed back up the storage containers, disappearing from sight.

"You believe you can trust that one?" Lordre asked.

"He's been honest so far, and he did save my life a few minutes ago. So for now, yes."

Terris actually joined us right before we got back to the others and he hung around the back, half hiding so he wouldn't be seen first.

We walked in to see that they had moved all the bodies to one area and were trying to figure out what to do with them. Hadn't thought of that either; that was never addressed in the games or anything, and Cerberus did their own clean-up back at the station.

I gave Adria a curious look when I saw her expression – she looked like she felt guilty about something, or uncertain, nervous. She noticed my look and bit her lower lip, glancing back at the bodies, and then to me and Wes:

"We, um, is it bad that we… took some of their stuff? Nothing… personal, just weapons and such, and …"

"We took their credit chits, too," Josh finished, also looking uncomfortable.

Wes sighed, "I wouldn't say it's a bad thing – we took stuff from the people we just knocked out, so … and it isn't like they're going to need them anymore."

Crap. I couldn't fight it anymore and dashed to throw up behind a crate, my head spinning horribly.

Terris got to me before Wes did and helped keep my hair back while Wes kept a grip on my shoulder; one of the other Salarians let me take a drink from the water bottle he pulled from his belt.

I felt extremely embarrassed and gross until Isis nodded gravely, "I had to do that just a few minutes ago."

Turned out most everyone had got sick at least a little – I was just the one fighting it hardest.

We left the warehouse a few minutes later, after James went out and dragged the still-groggy sniper in so he could be the one to deal with the bodies. Lordre had said there was a garbage pick-up that would probably get them in a few hours, but that made us feel like crap so left it up to the other guy to decide.

About halfway back to the market district, Lordre reassured us that we would still receive our payment – but that he thought it best if we hold off a little longer on the chocolates. We readily agreed. None of us were hungry now anyway, and it would just feel… wrong.

* * *

We helped the Salarians get the merchandise put up and were getting ready to go back to our shuttle when one of Lordre's partners came into the back looking worried.

"What's wrong Heilder?" Lordre asked.

"Thoros wants to talk to them."

Now? Really? I thought we were done taking crap tonight… I didn't want to have to deal with anything else, I was too worn out, and I know the others were too. But we didn't want the Turian to feel the need to come in after us, so we met him right outside the shop.

The Turian was barely visible in the dark with his smoky gray skin and dark armor, but the lights around made his silver eyes and light blue tattoos almost glow. I know he was planning on saying something, and it probably wouldn't be nice, and I was tired so once I saw him the words just tumbled out:

"Please leave us alone, we didn't do anything wrong and if you give us more crap I might just throw up on you this time."

It wasn't an empty threat either; I still felt really sick and woozy.

I was surprised when he just laughed, "Oh please, anything but that. Stupid human, I'm merely here to make certain you receive my warning to keep yourselves out of my territory. Don't think to try anything by culling favor with the residents, too many owe me for that to work."

"We were just doing a job, Thoros. We have no interest in taking over, or making people owe us anything," Wes answered, "But you should know, we're not just going away either. We have no means to go anywhere else right now, and we will do what we have to, to survive. If you want to hash out the details, we can do it later. We're leaving for now, and will only be back for another job or … regular reasons, no plans to 'overthrow' you. We are not a threat, so relax."

The Turian didn't answer immediately, just studied us, mainly me and Wes. I vaguely noticed the bandage wrapped around his throat and had to suppress a smirk. Ha ha. Definitely feeling loopy now.

"So you're the leader of your little band, then?" he finally asked.

"Me and her, yes."

No, don't include me in that! I'm a follower! Lead and I shall follow, not the other way around!

His eyes settled on me again and he seemed to scoff as he jerked his head, "Fine then – if you are true to your word, we will talk later. But if you are like most of the humans I have interacted with, we will settle matters differently."

And again he just walked away, turning his back and disappearing into the streets.

"Come on, let's go," Isis urged, so we said our farewells – for now – to the Salarians and gratefully accepted from Lordre a bag with the supplies we – they – had… gathered.

We pretty much trudged back to the shuttle, too exhausted to move quickly. The others were waiting with food and water ready, as well as medical stuff in case we needed it. Luckily those were fairly unnecessary and after introducing Terris to them, we ate a little bit before collapsing into restless sleep.

If I ever end up meeting whoever Commander Shepard is in this universe and joining him or her on their quest to save the galaxy, I was never, _ever_ coming back to this damned asteroid.


	22. Ch22: Staking A Claim

Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect, I claim my OCs!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 22

* * *

**A/N: So here we go with the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think!**

***Staking a Claim***

Eddie squinted out the window, "That it?"

"Yeah, that's the place," Terris confirmed with a nod.

I surveyed the dark, dirty, dismal place with apprehension – it certainly didn't look friendly. Though given what Terris told us about this district, I wasn't surprised.

Eddie landed the shuttle on the clearest patch of ground he could find and we slowly exited, keeping our eyes moving so nothing and no one could get the jump on us. I looked over at Terris as he ducked out with me, his expression s mixture of excitement and wariness, and I smiled as Eddie dropped back to stand closer to him.

Who knew we'd all get so weirdly protective of the little 'stray' we'd picked up the other day?

When we'd first introduced him to the others at the shuttle, they'd been understandably suspicious, and Eddie had been the one to press for specific answers:

"We get that you were helping, and all that, but why did you even care in the first place? Why did you want to help? I really am curious."

Terris hadn't even hesitated, saying simply, "They let us go. I didn't want something bad to happen to someone like them."

There had been some basic questions about him after that, but those of us with the link could vouch that he was being truthful and my group was so exhausted we just didn't care to push him too much. So he'd stayed the night.

And the next day when Dorian made a crack about space becoming a bit too tight, Terris asked why we always stayed at the shuttle.

"Because we can't afford to let it get snatched," James answered, followed by Raschelle saying:

"And we can't afford any place to stay right now."

That's when Terris suggested we check out this place – the 'Derelict District' or 'Haunted' as people called it. Only an Asari or Krogan would actually be able to personally recall what had happened up here over a century ago, but there are plenty of stories about the place. Mostly crazy ghost legends and the like, though many were based in the truth:

A terrible malfunction at an Eezo refinery had killed every worker and backlashed into the district's systems, destroying the other factories and then killing most of the residents. The few survivors suffered severe radiation side effects, injuries from explosions and exposure. Many of them died soon after.

Everyone who had tried to move in or claim it since had met with ill fortune or been driven out by the creepiness they called 'supernatural occurrences'. Now only a few stragglers, junkies and the like, hang around with no one officially occupying the district.

It took some deliberating, but we decided to come check it out – no one owned it so it was fairly free for the taking. But just looking around this landing/entry area told us it was going to take a heck of a clean-up to make it anything near decent.

The entryway was positively huge – the only way in or out of the district, disregarding vents and ducts in the walls – due to the fact that they would of course need it so large to allow for transports for their shipments. From here we couldn't see much of the actual buildings; there was quite a distance from the entry to the residential area. Easy to see people coming in, with no cover for them to hide behind other than some debris that would need to be cleared. And it looked like there might be a set of doors – BIG doors – at the end of the gigantic entryway.

"Alright people, let's go check it out," I said, taking a deep breath, trying to ignore the stench as we cautiously moved forward.

* * *

"Hey, this place looked pretty decent!" Molly called, but Fred shook his head:

"Been there already, pretty sure someone died in there recently. Stinks, and there's blood everywhere."

"Oh – oh my God, y'mean this green stuff everywhere is - ?!"

"Yep – Salarian. Probably more than one."

The female Soldier couldn't get out fast enough, tripping over her own feet and rubbish as she hurried to rejoin the bulk of the group.

"Oh, I don't think I can stand to live somewhere that people died in," she said with a shudder.

Adria chuckled darkly, "Well you're not gonna like this place much, are you? Lots of people died here."

"Doesn't it just seem… _creepy_ to you guys?" Molly whispered.

I shrugged, "Yeah, but I'm used to it."

That made her stutter, "Uh – _how_?!"

"Back on Earth, the house my Dad bought – the man and his grown daughter had killed her ex in the basement."

"_Seriously_?!" Molly squeaked. Apparently she got spooked by this stuff easily.

"Yup. I won't freak you out with the details." Because it is quite disturbing…

"Aaagh! That is just so… so…"

"Creepy," I finished, "Especially when you're bedroom is in that basement."

"Okay, _please_ let's stop talking about dead people and focus on our house hunting?" she begged.

Josh squeezed her shoulder reassuringly as we kept moving.

So far, we hadn't had much luck; everywhere was dangerously rundown or too nasty-creepy to even consider using it temporarily. But given how confined the shuttle felt, we would be willing to compromise if we have to so long as we all fit. Even a couple of buildings right next to each other would work.

After another half hour we found a little house that looked promising – no blood, in decent shape, completely empty. But quite small. We _could_ fit, but it would still be tight. Though we could probably manage it, I think all of us were looking for some space after the cells, the tiny rooms, the shuttle… adding Terris made us realize how tight the space really is.

Compromise was looking good about now, so this place could work for a while.

"Okay, remember this place so we can come back to it and let's keep looking," I decided.

"Do we have time? I mean, _we _do, but aren't you supposed to go meet with Thoros again?" Josh asked.

I glared sulkily over my shoulder, "I've still got some time…"

Josh smiled in sympathy, "Maybe, but not much. And I doubt he would like you being late. He's quick to jump the gun."

"Yeah – I know, he'll probably get insulted and think I'm trying to demean him by showing up whenever I want instead of when he said."

Terris nodded in grim agreement, "Rumor has it he was real violent with the last person to make him wait – and that was a Krogan."

Radak Thoros – the annoying, insufferable arrogant butt of a Turian that we had to deal with to keep the Nebula Nine off our backs anytime we were seen in their territory. We would've just totally relocated if it weren't for Lordre. We like the Salarian, and a solid job is nice to have, even if it is only for a couple of people.

To keep things civil with Thoros, Wes had gone with a few others to talk with him – in a very public area with easy escape routes. No way was he dumb enough to agree to anywhere 'private'.

But Wes was unsuccessful as Thoros insisted that _I _be the one he dealt with. Wouldn't say why, but was insistent.

I scowled as I remembered the amused, arrogant smirk on his annoying face when I'd shown up. We hadn't come to any kind of agreement yesterday because Thoros still wasn't convinced that we could be trusted to not try and take over. I had to go talk with him again today. Why he would suddenly believe me today, I have no idea, but again he insisted. Maybe our 'house hunting' thing will convince him.

Or maybe he just really enjoys annoying the heck out of me – he seems to find my reactions to his goading amusing. Thinks it's funny. Jerk.

I was about to head back with Fred volunteering to walk with me, when Wes alerted me that he and his group of 'explorers' were heading into the district to catch up with us. I clapped my hands together and spun to tell the others – but stopped when I remembered Terris. He was up front with the others, checking out the area around a really big building with lots of windows. He didn't yet know about the link, or much of the rest of what we'd gone through.

We'd answered his questions much the same way we did with Lordre, because while he is _with _us, he is not _one_ of us. Not yet.

He seemed to understand that, because he hadn't asked for any details or been pushy at all, just asking. I could tell he was still very much insecure about his situation, which was good, because it showed that he _is_ a smart guy and may yet make it through alright.

Josh and Fred had heard Wes' alert too, so we quietly whispered to let Molly and Adria know. Our hearing sensitivity let us do this so quietly that Terris didn't even catch a mumble. It meant Eddie didn't either, so he was surprised when Wes, Raschelle, Dorian and Lex came around the corner.

"Hey, what're you guys doing here?"

"Eh, got bored. Figured we'd head here to help out and make it so we don't get split up too much more," Dorian answered.

"Yay! So let's go!" I cheered, grabbing Wes' arm and towing him along with me.

He laughed and called for Molly to come with us. She was more than happy to comply and get out of the creepy house hunt.

* * *

We said 'Hi' to Loran and James as we passed the shuttle and they reassured there'd been no problems so far; they had spent most of their time continuing to decrypt the Project's data. It was seriously safeguarded and stuff, but the Techs who stayed with the shuttle whenever others went out were constantly working on it, and had created a program to help that was always running. Or something like that, I kinda get it, but also kinda don't – like I know what they are doing, but don't ask me to explain it. I'm not a hacker.

We are hoping to be able to send this information – ALL of it in one big burst – to the Alliance once we're done with it. I am still hoping there is something in there that specifically implicates Cerberus in the whole affair, or at least told us that's who they are. I want to be able to talk about it!

But I have to keep my mouth shut for now, lest I say something I can't explain and get in trouble.

Because I still have no idea how or why I am here.

* * *

Across the landing, through a few streets and down some stairs to the Market District, and our route to meet Thoros took us past Lordre's shop.

We were able to greet him, Isis and Carver as we passed. Lordre waved cheerily as he helped his customers and Isis and I grinned at each other – more serious and proper she may be, we were ALL excited about the 'payment' they were bringing back tonight.

Our meeting place was a few streets down, in a large club neatly tucked into the wall. It was run by Ashanu's sisters and the three of us were led in through a side door and an empty hall to an upper room for privacy. I don't think they wanted the party-hardy people to see us.

Thoros and his cronies were there, casually seated and chatting as they watched the happenings downstairs through a one-way window. The blaring music was dampened in here, for which we were grateful.

The Turian gang leader glanced at us as we entered and he smirked again, "Well, looks like they know how to be on time. Early, even. Color me impressed."

"Yay us," I said with a small fist pump at my hip.

Some of those in the room frowned, but Thoros chuckled, "And what do you think of our humble establishment?"

I made a show of looking around, trying to keep my face semi-neutral while I took in the pulsing strobe lights and the mingling mob, "Well, I've never been in a club before so I can't compare, but it looks cool. Y'know, music actually has real rhythm. I'm surprised you let in so many humans though."

He shrugged as he sat back and narrowed his eyes, "So long as they don't cause problems."

"Like you still seem to think we will?"

He didn't say anything, but his mandibles pressed tight to his face and he motioned for us to sit on the couch across from him.

I felt a sudden rush of weird excitement – another 'fangirl' moment or something as I realized this is not only my first club ever, but my first real building I'd been in since coming here (the facility doesn't count) and honest to God, my thought when I sat down was '_My first Mass Effect couch! Sweet!_'

I nearly face-palmed at my own dumbness.

I kept it all off my face, but I know Wes felt some of it and was quite bemused by my excitement. We would need to get communicators soon – the link wouldn't work between all of us spread out so much. We could access Isis right now, but not Dorian, Fred or Josh. Definitely limited, though much stronger with Wes. Cellmates have a stronger connection, as well as over distance, though not by a wide margin.

I gave Wes a mental shrug to deflect and kept facing Thoros:

"So where did you want to start at today?"

The Turian snorted, "Why not just start where we left off? Tell me why you're here."

"I already _told_ you -"

"Yes, but I'd like the truth this time, if you please."

"I _have _been telling you the truth! We came to Omega, to this district, to look for work and a place to stay, we aren't trying to 'take over' anything or cause problems, we're just trying to get some income going!"

"Why?"

"_WHY?_ Because we _need_ it, isn't that _obvious_?"

"But you act in such a hurry, you are rushing in and barreling through, nosing your way into _my_ territory and still saying you have no intentions of doing _exactly_ what you are doing!"

"What is it we are doing? What have we done to be an actual – not just _perceived_ – problem for you?!"

"When you start trying to order me around like you did when we first met, you undermine my authority and _get in my way_!"

"_We weren't ordering you around_, we just wanted you to _stop trying to kill us_! I mean, duh! We all have a very high level of self-preservation!"

Thoros growled, leaning forward as we glared at each other:

"And yet you still did not leave."

"We needed a job. This is the best place nearby to look for one."

Now he scoffed, "Well what did you do, blow all of your credits your first day here? No one can be stupid enough to travel the galaxy _broke_."

"Our intelligence level has nothing to do with it – honest to God, we had _nothing_ when we came here beyond some weapons and our shuttle. That's it, no money, no other clothes, no _shoes_" - I stuck one dirty foot in the air for emphasis – "and no food left. We _still_ barely have anything, and nothing enough for all of us, that's why we need the work!"

"All of you? And how many is that? If you truly were so destitute and helpless, why would you be in such a large group? Hm?"

"That's none of your business."

"None of my business? None of my business if a group of stubborn, powerful humans blows their way into my face? Who are you working for? Who sent you?"

"Uh – what? Working for? Who the heck would we be working for?" I asked, dumbfounded by this sudden accusation.

"Any one of a number wanting information on me, by infiltration or other means – now _who is it_?"

This is his problem? He seriously thinks we're working for someone trying to get to him? Lord have mercy upon this arrogant twit…

"The only people we 'work for' are ourselves, Thoros, and only since we _got_ here have we done this kind of mercenary work. And why the heck would this be about _you_? All you are is a little gang-boss on a stinkin' asteroid in the middle of nowhere!"

"The Nebula Nine has posts on five star systems, with well over two hundred and fifty companions in all and are known throughout the Terminus Systems to be respected and feared – a far greater band than your sad little group of wannabe mercenaries."

Okay, that was… quite impressive. But I'm not sure I really care right now, I don't see what that has to do with convincing him we're not a threat. So I should probably stop yelling so much and sit back down – we were both on our feet now, him towering over me.

"So we're just wannabes now? I thought we were working for someone?"

"I never said you were doing a good job of it."

"Agh! Please, why can't you understand that we are not working for anyone else, we are on our own, we came here for work to make our way, and we were not _sent_ by anyone!"

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that your group is some sort of – of accident? That you all just joined together to start from nothing in the most dangerous place in the galaxy? I am not stupid, human, I can see the marks you all share!"

Marks? Oh the_ tattoos_, okay this is making more sense now, but he didn't let me get a word in as he continued to rant:

"You are _all _marked with numbers, colors – why? If they are not identification markers for who you work for, then what are they? You all wear the same clothes, you are all a mess, you are all different from any human I have ever come across! _You_ have _white_ Biotics! How is that even _possible_?! What the hell _are_ you people?"

"We didn't ask for these! We didn't want them, I didn't want these, we didn't have a choice in the matter! And – and yes, the tattoos mean something, but that is _none_ of your business! _None of it is any of your business_!" I snarled, jabbing my finger at him, "Why can't you accept that we will keep out of your business if you will keep out of ours?! That's all we want!"

My Biotics reacted to my anger and defensiveness, glowing all over me and flaring at my hands. Thoros did not appreciate this.

"You are just like all those humans who think they are better than the rest of us in the galaxy – look at you, you're Biotics are proof! You do whatever you want, play with things you should leave well enough alone!"

I could feel Wes trying to calm me through the link, but I was pissed, he was pissed, we were all pissed in here, so I went ahead and blew up on him:

"_STOP TALKING LIKE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING_! YOU THINK YOU UNDERSTAND? YOU DON'T KNOW _SQUAT_! WE DIDN'T _ASK_ FOR ANY OF THIS CRAP, BUT _THEY_ WENT AHEAD AND DID IT ANYWAY!"

Either I surprised him or he was waiting for this, because he let me continue while he glared at me.

"You want to know? You really want to know why we are all numbered, why we're all different, why we all have nothing?! Fine then! We are all like this because yes, there is a group of humans who are like you said, who think they are better than the rest, who want to push the bar for our evolution – they did this to us! They took us from our homes, faked our deaths, or nabbed us off the streets! They held us, cuffed and chained us, they experimented on us, they _tortured_ us, and they marked us! We weren't people to them, we were just subjects of experimentation! They wanted to make us '_better_' and then make all of humanity '_better_'. Well they succeeded, beyond what they predicted. We got so much '_better_' we were able to use our new abilities against them, we were able to get away! We kicked their sorry asses for what they took from us, for the losses they caused, for the unnatural '_superiority_' they gave us. So we came here, with _nothing_, hoping to find some way to keep them from finding us again, hoping to find a way to get back to our homes, to get s_omething_ so we don't have _nothing_! Will you believe _that_, Radak Thoros?!"

I stood there with my head cocked to the side, trying to keep my Biotics from exploding as Wes and Molly stood next to me, Thoros looking us three over very carefully. His group just stood back and watched, not sure how to interpret my rant and his silence.

After a few long moments, he asked, "Who were these people?"

"They didn't feel inclined to share that particular information with us," I answered tightly, twisting my wrists and dissipating my Biotics as I turned to walk back to the couch.

Wes jumped in, "We have a good bit of their data, but it's all heavily encrypted and we've been working on that as well. Hopefully something in there will tell us who they are and where we can find them."

Thoros grunted and we all sat down again, me feeling exhausted and I dropped my head in my hands, trying to concentrate again. The atmosphere was tense, and everybody was waiting for Thoros to say something else. I looked up at him – his face was speculative and guarded as he tried to decide whether to believe us or not.

He leaned his elbows on his knees, "What did they do?"

I gave him an 'Excuse me?' look and he raised his hands, "Not – not their methods, obviously, but you said they succeeded. What was their success?"

"Basically, we're just stronger, more durable, faster, keener senses, heal faster. They did some… specializing. Biotics, physicality, brainpower and techy stuff. That's… all I'm gonna tell you."

"And your tattoos?"

"How they identified us. Beyond that, again, not gonna tell you. It's not something we enjoy discussing."

"And you escaped."

"Clearly."

"How?"

"The way they controlled us was taken out of the equation and…"

And somehow the whole facility had malfunctioned at the same time, acting like Tate's virus was back, but better. But none of us knew how it happened. And I didn't feel like explaining all that to Thoros and his buddies.

I looked back up and he was watching me, one brow plate raised as he waited for me to finish my thought.

"And other stuff, we don't know how all of it happened. We got lucky."

"Where was this place _at_?"

"Somewhere in the Sigurd's Cradle Cluster. It blew up."

"In the Psi Tophet System?"

The Asari's question threw me.

"Uh – yeah. How do you know? Did you know about something?"

She shook her head emphatically, "No, no, but a friend of mine who works with a mining corporation was part of a scouting party a few days back and they were surprised to find so much debris and manmade satellites that had not been there before. And that system hasn't even been on the maps very long."

Huh. Must've just missed them? I can't believe we're actually talking about all this to these guys…

Thoros frowned, "How long were you held?"

"Some were there longer than others… months, though. We'd have to get into the data to get an exact date."

Thoros was deliberating something, tapping his talons against his chin, then after a moment of silence he asked, "What kind of specializations did they do? I get that your Biotics are … different, but with physicality? 'Techy stuff'? How are you 'better'?"

I looked back to Wes and Molly, who just shrugged and nodded.

"Well, you're in luck because you have examples of all three here – me you get, but Wes here has the tech specialty and Molly the physical."

"So you're all physically 'better', and the specialty…?"

"Much, much 'better'."

"Like how?"

"Like she and the other 'Soldiers' are stronger than the rest of us, faster, more durable and heal quicker. The 'Techs' think faster, retain more information, and can hack so efficiently as to use their brains to do it, just plug in and think what they want."

"We can also do this," Wes said, flaring a small ring of flames around his right cuff.

"Oh, that is very nice," Thoros said, sounding truly impressed, "And you said this female is stronger than both of you? Who else is she stronger than?"

"Stronger than the majority of those gathered here. At least as strong as you are," she confirmed with quiet confidence.

"Can you give us a demonstration?" one of the other Turians asked with a sly tone.

"Assuming you keep an eye on us, you will get one sooner or later," she answered with a smile.

"Hmm, and have we already?" Thoros interjected; "The big man from our … introduction?"

I smiled, "Yes, Dorian is another with that specialty."

It grew quiet again. But it wasn't as tense a quiet – I think we actually convinced the bugger to lay off for now.

After a long moment he gave a sharp nod, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to merely 'keep an eye' on you as she said. For a while."

"That's all we ask for."

"But you _will _keep your nose out of our business, let us deal with it."

"I can promise we will try, but we are also here to impress people, so if the chance comes to rescue someone, we will probably take it. Specifically if none of you are nearby."

"Well, I guess I can't argue with that logic now can I? Bah – just try and explore other regions, not just mine. I have no intention of forging some sort of ironic allegiance with a ragtag band of humans."

I snorted, "Duly noted."

"Then I suppose I shall allow you to leave now – tell me, have you found anywhere yet to stay, or are the lot of you still huddling in your little shuttle like a bunch of pyjaks?"

"Oh we thought we'd check out the haunted district up a tier, give it a look through as it's free for the taking. Not that we're trying to 'take over', there's not enough of us for that kinda thing anyway. I understand that's not part of your territory?"

"You're taking up residence in the haunted district?"

"Attempting to. You disapprove?"

Now he outright laughed, "Human, if you can conquer that place, then by all means go ahead. But don't be surprised if you're all running away a few nights from now half out of your minds."

I shrugged, "We're half out of our minds already, so we'll probably fit right in."

He snorted and waved for us to go; as we walked out the door, the other Turian from earlier made a move against Molly.

She didn't even blink, just grabbed his wrist, twisted and flipped him onto his back with ease and kept walking. We could hear Thoros and others laughing heartily behind us.

* * *

We weren't snuck out the back like we'd come in – our Salarian guide led us down to the party floor so we could just go out the front door and left us at the bottom of the stairs.

The lights were flashing and the music pulsed hard, the bass throbbing in our heads. We really were just going to walk out, but Wes stopped and looked to his right where we could hear a heated argument between an Asari bartender and a male human patron who was harassing her:

"Listen clearly you idiot – if you don't get the hell out right now, I _will_ call our security and you _will_ be thrown out and banned. I am _not _going anywhere with you, I am _not _serving you anymore drinks, and you _will_ leave me the hell alone!"

"Aw c'mon sweet-cheeks, don't be such a hardass; all I'm asking is a … few moments of your time."

"The hell you are you slimy git – get out!"

Wes started to make his way over and then we saw the man pull a gun out of his jacket, causing the Asari to step back quickly but he grabbed her arm to keep her there:

"I've been asking nicely now, so why don't you just -"

Wes thwacked his cuffed wrist against the back of the man's neck and snatched his gun away before grabbing the back of his jacket and shoving him against the bar so the Asari could pull away.

"Hey what the hell?!"

"I believe the lady told you to leave, scumbag, so you're leaving now."

"You can't do that! Who do you think you are?"

"None of your damn business."

And Wes hauled him around as the security showed up, a Batarian and a Turian grabbing the harasser by his arms and literally throwing him out of the club; then they each let a few shots out at his feet to get him moving.

We were still at the bar, and the Asari turned to Wes with a surprised and grateful smile:

"You have my gratitude – not many humans would take the side of an alien against one of their own."

Wes gave her a small smile, "It was my pleasure; and please understand, there are more of us out there who aren't complete and utter asses like him. More of us than you might see here on Omega. On behalf of all the others, I will apologize, as I know none of them will and you are likely to see more of them."

"Unfortunately. Thank you again. And I will… keep in mind what you say," she let out a pretty laugh, "It is true that this place attracts more than its share of the galaxy's scum. I honestly don't hate humans in general, just his sort. As with those of other races, I assure you."

The Asari cocked her head to side and raised a brow, "I am Lyora, one of Ashanu's younger sisters. You have met her, yes?"

"That we have – what gave it away?"

"You fit her description, as does one of your companions," and she nodded at me, "and might I learn your name?"

"Wes, from the … well, whatever it is we decide to call ourselves. We still haven't quite worked that out."

Lyora chuckled, "Well then, is there anything I can get you? On the house, as thanks."

"Ah – I couldn't now, wouldn't be fair to the rest of our group. I think they would shun me if I had a drink without them."

"Well then by all means, bring them with you next time and ask for me. We could work something out," she said with another smile.

Wes nodded, "As long as Thoros wouldn't disapprove, we would be happy too, I am sure."

"Good."

"Go ahead and give them something for the road, sister – they're holing up in the haunting as I hear it. I am sure they will be needing it to lift their spirits."

I looked to see Ashanu lean against the bar next to us. Her sister raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Are you really? Goddess, you must be fairly desperate or quite sure of yourselves."

"A bit of a mixture of both, actually," he answered.

Lyora was kind enough to send us with a bag to carry the bottles in (I was surprised when she gave us three instead of just one) and we said our goodbyes, leaving in a much better mood than when we came to the meeting.

Luck was with us as we passed Lordre's shop – he was closing up and so Isis and Carver joined the three of us, each holding a large white box that got me reeeaallly excited. I know, it's sad, but I haven't had chocolate in sooooo long. And this was Salarian chocolate! And we had alien alcohol too! This is freaking awesome!

* * *

The shuttle wasn't where we had seen it last, and upon inquiry through the link, Josh told us they had found the perfect place and had moved it there. It seems things were finally going right for a change. I asked Josh for details about this perfect place, but he just laughed and said:

*_Come see for yourselves! Eddie wants to come get you, but the shuttle is so low on fuel we don't think that's a good idea._*

*_That's fine, we can handle it_* I answered.

*_Regardless, some of us are coming to meet you – we had an issue with a high junkie earlier that we do not wish to repeat._*

A few minutes later we were joined by him, Dorian, and Loran; Dorian nearly breakdanced when we told him we had alcohol too.

"Awesome! So once you guys eat, we get to party right? Celebrate our new crash place and surviving and all that."

Isis laughed and squeezed his arm, "Yes, but don't you go sneaking a drink early, you have to share you know."

"Of course, I wouldn't be that selfish!" he answered with mock injury.

Turns out our new 'crash place' is an entire apartment complex – the first couple of floors aren't so great, but the top three or four were in fair condition and they'd been able to get the lights working and everything. We had running water. We could flush a toilet! We could take showers! Oh my God, I could take a blessed _shower_!

There were eight apartments on each floor, and it turned out that the floor they picked was the top where each apartment was two floors. The shuttle was safely stowed on the landing of the roof, and there was no way to get there without going through the security system they had hardwired for now. On the whole, it would be a very nice place once cleaned up properly. And if we could keep ourselves safe and sane, that would be good too.

For safety purposes we weren't splitting up much: us girls were sharing, and the guys were splitting into two groups flanking our apartment. But for the party that was going on tonight, we all gathered in the girls' place (it's the nicest, honestly our guys are so sweet) and our spirits were high as we ate the meal they had made from our first 'groceries' and chatted about the day.

Terris was especially having fun, looking like he hadn't had this much fun in a very long time.

Then we cracked out the chocolate and the fruit wine Lyora had sent with us. I hadn't had much experience with alcohol – honestly the only experience I had was an accident when I tried a friend's supposedly virgin strawberry daiquiri on a college cruise with the music department. Even she thought it was a virgin, but after she started feeling quite tipsy, we realized the server had gotten her refill wrong. But I don't think one sip counts as experience. And neither does the stuff my friend Jesse had me and Melody try at his house once – the stuff his dad made smelled and tasted like nail polish remover. _ICK._

This stuff wasn't so bad – sweet and rich, very smooth, with just a bit of bitter bite that made me not drink very much. I figured it better to let the guys – and Adria – who really missed it to have it to themselves, though everyone in the group got at least a little.

The chocolate, though, is an entirely different story.

I could've eaten all of it myself it was so good – perfectly smooth, melting in my mouth, not too rich, and there were different kinds. My favorites were the solid dark and the milk chocolate creams. I was definitely going to become addicted to this stuff, I swear it's the best chocolate I have eaten in my entire life. Huzzah for Lordre!

It really was so much fun, and luckily there wasn't enough alcohol for anyone to really get drunk – though it turns out Biotics can handle their liquor more than others. At least, that's what they told me. I'm thinking it will be a lot harder for any of us Subjects to get drunk than Eddie, Loran or Terris.

We ended up sleeping in the same apartment that night, due to exhaustions and being used to it. I wasn't very comfortable with the thought of my only Cellmate not being _right_ there. And I had to tease Wes, even just a little, about pretty Lyora and the eyes she'd been making at him. He seemed utterly confused and repeatedly insisted that given her association with Thoros and the Nines, he doubted she would actually have anything to do with a human in that regard. I just laughed and patted his shoulder before curling up on the small couch I had claimed. He swatted my dangling arm from his spot on the floor in front of my couch and I laughed again.

So maybe Omega isn't such a bad choice after all.


	23. Ch23: Frenemies

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all Mass Effect! I claim my OCs!

MEFF: Project Darwin Chapter 23

_***FRENEMIES***_

**A/N: 'Hope to have this up soon' …riiiiigghhhttt…**

James jumped out of the way as the small drone whizzed by, nearly crashing into him. The Soldier gave a frustrated huff:

"Raschelle! Get your toy under control!"

I ducked behind a kitchen counter with a grin as the drone zipped by overhead, its' little dome top spinning while the computerized voice chanted:

[**Unclean surface, must sanitize. Garbage on the floor, throw away! Dirty, dirty, not clean!**]

Raschelle rushed in from another room, fiddling with the holo screen from her cuff, "Sorry sorry, I'm trying! I think it overloaded or something when it scanned this crazy mess."

"Well un-overload it!"

"Shut up James!"

The little maintenance drone stopped and hovered, four spindly metal arms freezing while it's three directional hover ducts spun at the base.

Raschelle sighed in relief, "Oh goodness that was ridiculous."

Wes laughed from the other room, "Is it behaving now?"

"Well, yeah, sorta – it's just hovering there. But at least I stopped it freaking out."

James gave the drone an irritated grimace as he walked over to it, "Why don't you just shut the damn thing off? It's not doing us any good."

"It will," his Cellmate insisted indignantly, "I just need to fix the programming again."

James snorted, "Just give it up Rae, you're being stupid."

She stuck her tongue out at him, "And you're being mean, so phooey!"

He rolled his eyes and poked the drone, scowling at it as Raschelle fiddled with her holo-screen again.

Wes walked in and headed towards me, "That stain in the living room won't be coming out without a heck of a scrubbing. Let's get these other rooms done first so we can get the supplies we'll need."

I agreed with a shudder – the stain was blood, and a lot of it, splattered on the wall and floor. Definitely creepy, definitely gross. Some of us not working an odd job had stopped 'exploring' for the past week, but were trying to make this district – at least our area of it – livable so we'd spent our time in cleaning groups, going floor by floor through the apartments. We'd finally reached the ground floor today, and it was much worse than the others.

James and Raschelle were still arguing over the drone when it suddenly sprang back to life, wide dome head swiveling to scan James' surprised face with its light grid:

[**Dirty!**] it exclaimed excitedly and proceeded to poof him in the face with a cloud of heavy white powder.

James swore and spun away before the drone could squirt any cleaner on him, shaking his head and coughing, keeping his eyes tight shut. The other three of us were nearly in tears we were laughing so hard.

The drone started whizzing around again until Raschelle gave it a specific direction to clean only the walls. James glared at us for our cackling, but with his face still covered in that powder and his now-short hair sticking up all which way all it did was make us laugh more.

He was probably going to start swearing at us, but Fred popped into the apartment:

"Hey, we may have a prob -"

He stopped upon spotting James and raised one eyebrow really high. James just growled angrily and stalked away.

Wes shook his head at him with a small smile and then turned his attention to Fred, "There may be a problem?"

He nodded, "Yeah… maybe, it's a situation at least. Me and Lex were on our way back when we met this… lady. And her kid. They're heading this way… they want to stay here. With… with us. For safety reasons, she said."

Wes' eyes narrowed and he cocked his head to the side, "I'll accept that's odd, but how is it a problem?"

I frowned as Fred shuffled his feet and he said hesitantly, "Well, uh, they're not… the only ones…"

Now we were raising our eyebrows and James stuck his now-powder-free face around the corner, "How many are there?"

"Total? Uhhhm… six."

"Six? Really?" Wes asked incredulously.

"Yeeaahh… And I'm not for sure positive, but I think I've seen a few of them before."

"When?" I asked.

"Over the past few days, seeing people on our way back from the other districts. At least two of them were out there."

"And they want to stay here? Like live here, with us?" Raschelle asked for clarification.

Fred nodded.

Huh. Well that's not something any of us had thought of. Granted we'd picked up Terris, but that wasn't quite the same situation…

*_Shall we go see these people?_* Wes asked.

*_Yes, I'd like to hear them out._*

* * *

We decided against all of us heading out – Loran and Dorian were at Lordre's today (they abhorred cleaning), and Isis and Carver were doing some threat-management for a businessman's daughter at some convention her was holding on this tier – so it was Wes, me, Fred and Eddie.

Lex was still out there with the group of wanderers, having shown them the way and now staying with them while they waited for us to meet, them a short ways from the apartments.

There were indeed six people waiting for us at an intersection: the woman and her toddler, a girl; two men who had similar faces, one of whom was injured and leaning heavily on the other; a very young teenage boy; and another young woman who might or might not be a teen.

They were all watching each other warily, bodies tense as though ready to run at a moment's notice. Lex was leaning against a building wall, slightly apart from them and looking uncomfortable and nervous. Wes called out to him and upon spotting us he relaxed, relief clear on his face as he stood and motioned the group to follow him to us.

Now it was us they were watching, both nervously and expectantly. And now I felt nervous and was thankful when Wes took the lead on this one, stepping in front to introduce himself, clasping his hands behind his back:

"Well hello – I'm Wes, one of the leaders of our group; Megan here is the other."

I nodded a greeting, and he continued, "Fred here tells us you're all looking to stay here, in this district with us. We don't have a problem with that, but are curious as to _why _you want to do this."

We had to wait a moment as they shuffled their feet and glanced at each other. The injured man was looking even paler, so I just stepped forward, directing Lex to help me get him to sit on a small half-wall a few feet away. His companion seemed grateful but still wary, and I could tell this one would need medical attention soon.

It was a little less awkward, and then the mother spoke up, "For me it's just… I'm homeless now, and you've built quite the reputation in your short time here. I think it would just be safer, and no one else lives out here. I – I can't afford to pay you yet, but I can find work and -"

"Slow down," Wes interrupted gently, "let me tell you that we really can't expect you to pay us or anything for the same reason we can't and won't make you leave – we don't own this district, we just claimed this little part of it. For now, anyway. And as long as you don't cause trouble you are welcome to stay here or nearby, wherever you want to be. And yes we can help with any trouble that shows up when we are here, but I'm still confused why you'd feel this place is safer after all the stories there are about the place."

The uninjured man jumped in, "All stories are exaggerated, and you guys are fine so far, and… well maybe being around you guys could be enough to keep others away." He glanced at his companion at that last bit, clearly worried.

The younger girl and teen boy were nodding in agreement; it was true, the random junkies and vagabonds running around hadn't bothered us or even showed up anywhere near since our first day when James had nearly killed one for attacking Raschelle.

"But it could be quite a risk whenever you have to leave the district," I pointed out, "there's only one way in or out, and that's not close to here."

"We understand," the younger girl said quietly.

"This is Omega – pretty self-explanatory for not being safe," the teen added.

"Please," the injured man said tiredly, "we haven't got anywhere else to go."

"Of course you can stay, as I said earlier -" Wes answered reassuringly, but I missed the next bit of conversation as Josh called to me over the link:

*_Hey Meg, you've got an email from Thoros. He marked it 'Urgent'._*

*_Alright, thanks Josh – any idea what it's about?_*

*_No, you want me to go ahead and open it?_*

*_Nah, I'll be there in a minute._*

I stepped forward to tell Wes and then I headed back, wondering what the Turian could possibly want this time and whether it would really be urgent or not. Thoros was now using the fact that we'd set up mail accounts to his advantage, trying to boss us around or sending cryptic messages to make us, particularly me, come see him. And they'd only been set up for five days!

Ah well. At least it'd helped us establish good relations with the Nebula Nine – instead of being a semi-hostile acquaintance, I now considered Radak Thoros a 'frenemy' of sorts.

He now considered us his toys to do with as he pleased. Yep. Better all around.

* * *

We only had the extranet access at the apartment or public terminals as none of us could afford to buy omnitools yet (we each had our own credits account set, but also a joint account where the majority, if not all, of our payments were going for now). The Techs didn't really need one with their special cuffs, but they didn't want to just upgrade those and keep them forever. We all just wanted the damn things off.

I looked at my metal-clad wrists as I entered the complex and sighed – we really should prioritize that. As used to them as I am, I really want them off. I'd feel like less of a prisoner waiting to be recaptured. The ankle cuffs were different, not as complicated or programmed, and we had gotten those off using some tools to bust them at the seams, but Cerberus had done a good job with the wrist ones and the only way off we had right now was just pushing them off, and that was REALLY painful and damaging.

Only Dorian had gotten his off successfully, and he had dislocated all his fingers to do it, and had some serious scrapes on his wrists and hands. The process and pain had freaked me out and I was barely able to watch, and definitely couldn't do it myself.

But with everything else going on, and the fact that we _are_ so used to them, cuff removal hadn't been worked on much. Someone had suggested using a blowtorch of sorts to then break them off, but we had no way to protect our skin from the heat that would require and we would risk losing or at least permanently damaging an appendage.

Not a happy thought.

I went straight up to the shuttle so I could check in on Adria's progress before reading the message – we had quite a bit of data decrypted, but not exactly the data we wanted. This was mostly personal info, profiles and journals. Hadn't gotten to the Cerberus part or any of the research yet. It was frustrating to say the least, but we would have people to pin some of it on when we get through it all.

James, Raschelle, Terris and Molly had taken a break from the cleaning when we left and were finishing up security sweeps and set-up, making sure the system the Techs had reactivated in the building was still functioning properly. Though Raschelle's 'toy' was still scrubbing the walls on the first floor, apparently whistling while it worked.

Josh had gone up to the shuttle with Adria, helping to separate the decrypted data so the system could work faster on the rest. I stepped off the elevator and kept my eyes on the shuttle – I refused to look past the edge and give myself the heebie-jeebies like I did last time I was up here.

"Anything new yet?"

"Not really," Adria called back and when I stepped into the cockpit she pulled up a screen:

"It's giving me a bunch of numbers – I'm not sure what they are yet, could be something more to decode, so I'm focusing my attention on them right now."

I nodded and Josh brought my email up on a secondary screen outside the cockpit.

"Thanks Josh."

"No problem – I'm going to head back in and check up on a few of the jobs we have lined up."

"Have fun."

He chuckled, disconnecting his datapad from the terminal, "Right."

My inbox only had a few messages total, two from Lordre and his cousin, the others all from Thoros. This latest one was simply titled 'URGENT', but when I selected it all I got was:

[Come meet me. I have news.]

Nothing else. I sighed and Adria came to peek, patting my back while laughing. I wrinkled my nose at her but pushed myself up after sending a quick [On my way] reply.

"Oh hey, what's going on with the new people?" she asked before I left.

"Not really sure – they wanna stay, we can't stop them, and they want to check with us anyway. They'll probably be back before me, or in a few minutes really, but you could always ask Josh, I'm sure Fred's keeping him updated."

"I'll do that – see you later."

I grabbed my pistol and shotgun and headed out.

* * *

We were meeting at the club again – it was a decently 'neutral' area and Ashanu seemed to like me well enough to not mind.

And the whole Lyora and Wes thing was becoming a factor; they'd only seen each other once since the first time, but it was obvious she had a crush on her 'hero'. It was absolutely adorable, and so was Wes whenever anyone brought it up. He refused to say she was his girlfriend and hadn't yet had time to … pursue the matter further. So he kept turning bright red and stuttering. As I said, adorable.

Though I do give myself brownie points for not harassing him like the others do – I really do think it's cute, not just amusing.

I didn't slip in through the back anymore; the bouncers knew me and were given a heads up that I was there for a meeting with the boss. Some of the patrons waiting to get in gave me dirty looks, but at a glare from the Batarian bouncer, Havan, none protested above a grumble.

I was immediately having to wade through people, but didn't mind too much since I really liked the music here as it pounded in my head, unconsciously adjusting my gait to walk in-step with the beats. Once a band dork, always a band dork.

"Winters."

I stopped and turned at Ashanu's call.

She made her way to me, jutting her chin in the direction I was headed, "Be sure to watch your step over there – some jackass busted bottles all over the place so there's glass we haven't got to yet. And since you still insist on running around barefoot, that wouldn't end well."

"Ah yes, thanks."

She nodded once and went back to doing… whatever it is Ashanu does. I know she's Thoros' second or something, but not much beyond that.

Thoros was in the same room, laid back casually in the big couch as he conversed with his companions in the room. Something made him laugh and I knocked on the doorframe to get his attention.

I couldn't help but wonder if it was so 'urgent' after all. He waved me in with a hearty greeting and told everyone else to leave the room and enjoy the club. Then he tried to get me to sit with him; I crossed my arms and cocked my hip where I stood:

"I thought you said this was urgent."

He shrugged, "I did, doesn't mean we can't relax while discussing it."

When I still didn't move he rolled his eyes and threw his hands up as he stood, "Fine, fine, so it's not supremely urgent. But I did want to talk with you and I figured that would get you here faster."

Now I rolled _my_ eyes and walked further into the room, clasping my hands behind my back, "Somehow I'm not surprised. What is it you wanted to talk about this time?"

"Oh you know, just making sure you haven't been whacked yet. Living in a haunted district, you never know. Who knows, maybe you're just a ghost already."

I snorted a laugh and shook my head – of course he didn't actually have anything useful. Ah well, I really shouldn't have expected too much.

He looked at my feet and raised a brow plate, "Still running around barefoot I see. Wearing the same clothes. Not very sanitary."

"Chill, we're plenty sanitary – just used to it. I've been wearing the same outfit for months, but we shower and, y'know, wash our clothes. And we're just getting to the point where we might be able to afford actually buying more clothes."

"Please,_ please_ tell me you guys actually lift credit chits off the goons you beat up."

"Oh give us some credit! We're not stupid."

"Didn't Lyora tell you about that corrupt weapons dealer? I thought you were gonna hack him, destroy him, or some such smart mercenary thing you do."

"She did and we are, we're just trying to do it… strategically. Not take a huge amount to set off alarms and let him heighten security. We haven't taken on someone like him yet, but we know when and where his next shipment goes out from, so we plan on taking care of him then."

Thoros looked impressed and pleased, "Smart."

"Yeah – you told Lyora about it didn't you?"

He laughed, "I was curious to see what you would do; you all seem to be surviving better than I thought you would be."

"Honestly, I wouldn't have thought you'd be pleased by that," I said wryly, crossing my arms again.

"As long as we're keeping things civil, I don't have a problem with you."

"Well thanks – and I'm serious, y'know, thanks for not being a … I don't know, a prejudiced ass."

That made him laugh, "I'm just great, aren't I?"

I snorted and strolled to the wall, leaning one shoulder against a one-way window; he cocked his head to the side and suddenly was looking awkward.

"So about Lyora… does your friend plan on coming down here at any point to actually see her, or what?"

"You – want to talk about Wes and Lyora's romantic… their 'involvement'? Really? Um, okay, well…"

I was a little dumbfounded, so didn't really know what to say.

Thoros rolled his eyes, "She's Ashanu's little sister, so yes, I am going to ask about them. It. Whatever. Okay so there's no 'them' yet, but is there going to be?"

"Uh – I honestly have no definite answer. I mean, he likes her, and it's obvious she likes him, so maybe. If we can get him the time and resources and whatnot so he can, y'know, I dunno, court her or… whatever… he plans on… doing…"

I trailed off and we stood there awkwardly for a minute and then we both started talking at once and had to stop again.

I cleared my throat, "So anyway, she'll get to see him tomorrow night – all the guys are coming here for some drinks, a guys' night out. Relaxation, none of us nagging females around."

Thoros chuckled, "Wow, you can't afford clothes but you can afford to let them do that? While you females are stuck back at base?"

"Well we get to go on a shopping spree once we get the funds for it, so Even-Steven."

The Turian frowned, "Who's Steven?"

I paused, "Oh yeah – uh, no one, just a … human expression. All's good, it evens out, yada yada."

"Ah."

Then he muttered so quietly I almost didn't hear, "Weird little aliens."

I grinned, "I heard that."

He looked surprised, then scowled, "They really did a number on you, huh?"

"Yep."

It got quiet again and my thoughts turned to money – we really weren't that bad off, we could probably get clothes, shoes, etc… if we really wanted to. But again, we're so used to this way that it's not the biggest priority. We're trying to get a decent financial fallback built up, and right now most of our money was going to food, lots and lots of food for us Subjects and friends, especially the Biotics.

And we could afford the guys' going out based on the pay we would get for that security job and another round or two of hacking. It's not like they were just gonna blow all of it. Though thinking on it, I wondered how much they would actually have to drink to manage to get drunk. That could be an interesting experiment later…

A sharp jab on my forehead made me blink rapidly and look up at Thoros in confused surprise, as he was now standing right in front of me. He'd flicked me with his talon.

"Way to blank out in the middle of a conversation."

"Oh sorry, I was just thinking and I guess I spaced out."

"Y'know, sleep can help with that problem."

"I do sleep, just not always… real well. My brain doesn't like to shut up."

Those stupid pedestals-and-roads-of-light dreamlets WOULD NOT leave me alone and while my body was resting, my mind was not. It was almost as bad as those nightmares, and the jury's still out on which I prefer.

Thoros surprised me again – apparently he'd ordered food and drinks and an Asari brought in a tray with two bottle, two square glasses and an assortment of snacks. Once Thoros pointed out which were levo and which were dextro, I was happy to start munching.

I was a little wary of the bottle though, and Thoros laughed when he noticed.

"It's not going to bite you, just drink it. Not like a few drinks are gonna get a super-Biotic like you drunk anyway," he assured me as he poured some of his into his glass.

As I got myself a bit of the fruity wine, he asked, "So still no sign of any of your district's 'hauntings' yet?"

"Not just yet. We got some new neighbors today, so no telling what's going to happen now."

I looked up – he didn't seem surprised, just nodded, now seeming a little distracted as he stared out the window.

After a few moments of silence I decided to say something: "You alright there, Thoros?"

"Mmn, fine. Just thinking."

"Dangerous, that is. Tread carefully."

I didn't get more than a snort; it was kind of disappointing.

"So are those cuffs supposed to be a new fashion statement or are you just 'used' to them too?" he asked, quite abruptly still staring away from me.

I paused and sat, sitting my glass on the table, raising my wrists to examine the cuffs, "We would love to get these damn things off, we just haven't found a safe way to do so yet. They weren't made for us to remove."

"I've been thinking, and we may be able to help with that."

"Wha- _REALLY_?! How? What do we need to do?!" I asked in excitement.

"One of my men, he's an engineer all about building things and may have some equipment that could do the trick. But he'd have to do it for you – he doesn't let anyone touch his tools."

"Sure, that's fine! How much would it cost?"

Thoros waved a hand at me to be quiet, "I'm sure he'll come up with something reasonable. He keeps shop at the tier above yours – I'm heading up there tomorrow if you'd like me to bring him here."

"Pretty please! Everyone's going to be so excited! You rock!"

"Yeah, I know," was his smug answer.

I just grinned and took another drink. I didn't get anywhere close to finishing the bottle as we made some idle chitchat about the club and discussed his territory further – apparently it was some of this tier and went up a couple more, not all in one place. He usually stayed down here and let his Omega base boss run the day to day on the uppermost tier. I was a little surprised to learn that wasn't Ashanu, but she is his overall second in command, so that made sense.

I almost decided against taking the bottle back with me, but did so at Thoros' comment that Lyora would be insulted. So to keep him from telling her it 'wasn't good enough', I took it.

I didn't go straight back either – Dorian and Loran were still at Lordre's and I talked with them for a bit. Lordre was excited to see me and insisted I sample his new fudge recipe; I was more than happy to oblige and assured him it would be a huge hit. And I was surprised and pleased when he requested I be part of his next shipment escort. Turns out the other Salarians were wondering if anything had happened to me since I'd only gone one other time after the first job. I liked them, especially the younger one who was a very excitable Salarian.

Dorian tried to snatch the bottle from me but I clocked him on the arm and whistled cheerily as I waltzed away.

* * *

The walk back was relatively uneventful – there was the regular scuffle with a creeper or thug, but easily handled with my Biotics. And thanks to our blossoming reputation as well. A couple of guys were eyeing me as a target but one stopped the other and muttered something that made his buddy look at me nervously. They quickly left the area.

Isis and Carver were on their way back and I hung around the district entrance for a few minutes so we could join up. When they came into view I was surprised to see them arguing, or rather, Isis teasing and Carver attempting to make her stop.

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms, asking, "So, how'd it go?"

"Oh it went great," Isis said with a grin, "not much trouble really, got to intimidate some fellows, make small talk with some interesting people, and our Carver here got himself a fan."

At that Carver's face turned bright red as he threw his arms in the air with a frustrated "Agh!" and stalked past us.

Isis laughed and I raised an eyebrow as we followed.

"A fan, huh? And who might that be?"

Carver scowled over his shoulder at my question and I suppressed a laugh.

"Our client's daughter," Isis answered happily.

"Oh- and how old is she?"

"She's only thirteen years old! Will you just _STOP?_!?" Carver exclaimed, embarrassed and I think slightly mortified.

I couldn't help but laugh a little and patted him on the shoulder, "Relax, she'll get over it – she _is _only thirteen."

"She'd better," he mumbled, "I don't need some kid nearly half my age squealing over me like that."

Isis looked over at me, "So I assume you were getting back from talking with Thoros again?"

"Yeah, and this time he actually had something useful – we should hurry back so we can tell the others. Dorian and Loran should be back soon, too."

Upon our return Wes filled me in on where each of the new residents were staying for the night at least, and everyone was excited when I told them we could finally get rid of the cuffs. All but the Techs, actually. They were still debating how to handle their unique situation – get omni-tools, or continue to use their specialized cuffs.

None of them really wanted to keep their cuffs (bad memories and all that) so next day we went in groups to meet with Thoros and his engineer Quarian.

I was in the first group, and the first to have the procedure done – it was simple, the Quarian using a special blowtorch and some kind of conducting plate, slipping the thin metal plate under the cuff and then heating the cuff with the torch. The conductor plate absorbed the heat, but didn't transfer to the other side touching our skin and kept the heat localized, rather heating the cuff even more so it was easy to then break.

Since it wasn't such a complicated thing, it wasn't too expensive. Our shopping spree may have to wait a little while longer, but it was well worth it to finally feel officially free.

The guys went out that night in a very celebratory mood, and us ladies finished off the wine bottle and pretty much partied the night away, listening to an extranet radio station.

I sent a message to Thoros before going to sleep that night after another long hot shower, asking for advice on the best place to get omni-tools at decent prices for all of us. He didn't reply until next morning, telling me he would check with one of his contacts in his upper territory about supplying us while he was out again that day.

* * *

I spent my day getting acquainted with the new residents and working out how to best get the surrounding area in a safe condition – we saw more people staying in different areas of the district, always hiding whenever we came by but I didn't feel any hostility from them so left them alone. But we wanted the place to be available for more to come in, and it would be easier to maintain control of the situation if they were closer to us, if we knew where they were at.

The communicators came in the morning and setting them up was easy and a huge relief as it fixed our link's range issue and now wouldn't have to be so careful about arranging for a linked Subject to be in every group. Most of the others used the earpiece primarily, but I kept mine on my belt – I didn't like having that thing on my ear all the time.

Adria was making significant progress with the data – the number sequences turned out to be accounts for different doctors, scientists and guards from the facility, credits accounts included.

Adria got this hugely wicked grin on her face, "Oh this is gold, this is."

She wanted to jump in and drain all the accounts, but I advised against it – call me paranoid, but I wanted to know whether they could track us if we hacked them. That idea disturbed her and she agreed to leave it for now until we – or they – could find a way to do it securely. After all the decrypting was done, as that was still priority.

Carver had come up with a program that could help make the decrypting faster, and they were testing it out today.

None of our Subject guys were feeling any ill effects from their night out, but the same couldn't be said for Eddie, Loran and Terris. I'd never actually seen someone with a hangover, and I must say it looks quite unpleasant. Especially Loran – the idiot had actually tried to out drink Dorian. He lost, obviously, and was paying for it.

When I asked Wes about Lyora, he'd turned a little red but was definitely pleased when he told me they'd been able to talk and he hoped to see her after her shift ended tonight since he wasn't doing any jobs and just helping with the decrypting and data organization.

Toward the end of the day I was back out with the residents, mainly helping the mother and the younger girl double check the little house they wanted to now stay in for safety and helped move their few things over. The toddler was very excited about the whole ordeal and was constantly running around giggling when we tried to catch her.

I was leaving and she darted out the door, trying to run across the street. I scooped her up, twirling her upside down and tucking her under my arm to carry back to her mother, who was huffing in exasperation at her antics. The girl's squealing laugh made her grin though, and it was as I handed her off that I froze, feeling a sharp spike of extreme hostility and danger.

I shooed them all into the house and locked the door to try and keep whatever it was away from them.

Then I spun around to see Thoros stalking towards me, everything about him telling me that he was the danger I'd sensed. I was more than a little surprised to see and feel him so … enraged. I've seen him annoyed, irritated, frustrated and angry, but nothing like this. This was scary. And I couldn't understand it after everything had been going so well..

And as far as I knew we hadn't done anything to warrant this; I could tell it was us he was directing his rage at, but no clue why.

I called to anyone on the link who might be nearby for help and was about to do the same with my communicator, but the Batarian flanking his right shot at my feet. I blocked it with a Barrier and sprang back and to the side, trying to get away from the house.

An angry snarl was on my face and I suppressed the urge to retaliate; Thoros jerked his talons up to keep his two companions back and he stalked right up, towering over me and sticking his angry face only inches from mine:

"What the _hell_ are you playing at?!"

"I don't know, you ass! What are you -"

"Don't give me any of your _crap_! We had a deal and I can't _believe_ I actually expected you humans to hold to it!"

"I have held to it! We all have!"

"Bullshit! I should shoot you now, I swear, I should _never_ have trusted you damned -"

"Thoros, _please_, I am serious! I don't know what you're talking about!" I kept myself as calm as possible – me getting mad wouldn't help anything here, and really I was worried more than anything else.

I looked up at him, hands partly raised in a surrendering, hopefully calming manner, but I really couldn't tell if it was doing any good or not.

Thoros still glared down at me, growling dangerously, "Do you honestly expect me to believe that _you_ knew nothing of your people attacking me?! You're one of their leaders, you couldn't not know!"

I was completely dumbfounded, floundering for something to say as he continued:

"You were told to keep out of the Nine's territories without my permission, and you not only violated that, you have the _gall _to attack me and my band the moment you laid eyes on us! What, did you just soften me up, were you waiting for us or -"

Now I held my hands up to try and make him stop, pleading urgently, "Radak, _stop_."

I think it was my use of his given name that finally rocked him back on his heels and annoyed indignation mingled with the rage.

"I am begging you to understand that I don't understand! We haven't been in your territory save for what you have approved, you've been there most of the time – today only two went to Lordre's shop, that's it! We've stayed on this tier, on the neutral, I swear! We did not attack you, none of us have been anywhere _near _you!"

"I'm not stupid; I know it was your people! I saw their marks, and all you damn freaks have the same scent on you! And their Biotics were _white_!"

The 'freaks' comment hurt a lot more than I thought it should. Shoving it down I tried to reason with him one more time:

"Thoros, please, I swear it was _not_. _Us! _We – I wouldn't do that! And I certainly wouldn't let the others either!"

But how could they have tattoos and abilities like ours if they weren't us? I decided to head that off before he could.

"Who had the white Biotics?"

His mandibles flared once and he bared his razor teeth as he answered sharply, "The dark human woman, and then the others -"

I took a chance and interrupted, "The only 'dark' woman we have is Isis, and she's a Soldier._ I_ am the only female Biotic we've got Thoros."

He threw his hands in the air and growled in frustration, turning a circle then facing me again, "Then how do you explain it? I did not imagine it, and neither did my team!"

"I'm not saying you did!" I answered hastily, "I'm just trying to get you to understand that it wasn't _us_."

I searched his face, looking for any sign that he might believe me. Maybe. I relaxed the guard on my senses –he was understandably still angry, but it wasn't solely directed at us – or me – anymore. I suppose that's a testament to our relationship that he is willing to believe me, at least a little.

"Then who was it, if not you?"

I took a deep breath, my brain trying to wrap around the around, "Listen, it's complicated, but -"

*_Meg I'm almost there, what's going on?!_*

Wes! Thank God!

*_There's some serious crap going down with Thoros, but I convinced him not to attack me just yet, and – hang on. Just go back, or wait for me where you are. We're gonna come meet you, I wanna bring Thoros to the apartments._*

*_What? Why?_*

I wasn't able to answer right away – the Turian was glaring impatiently.

"Thoros, I am willing to give you a full story, and it will at least partially explain who it was that attacked you, but would you be willing to come to our place for it?"

He looked me over in suspicious curiosity – we hadn't let him or any other Nines come that far yet whenever one had popped in before.

"Why?"

"Because the story is not just mine to tell – and it will make more sense if we all help tell it, and explain a few things."

"…I thought you already told us what happened?"

"Well… we did. No lies were told, but we didn't tell you all of it."

"Lying by omission?" he snarled sarcastically.

"More like 'None of your business', but with the way things are now, it has become at least a little bit your business."

"Especially if you want any sort of peaceful relations with us from here on."

"Exactly. We do. So will you come?"

He looked at me for a few moments, giving me time to respond to Wes:

*_Wes, if possible, I want everyone back. Lordre's shop should be closed by now, or soon, and no one else is doing a job – anyone out needs to come back pronto._*

He gave a mental sigh *_You going to tell me now what this is about?_*

*_Well, given something that happened to our Turian friend and his buddies today, I think we owe him a more in-depth explanation of where we came from. About how we're not the only ones._*

Thoros gave me a small nod and signaled his two to follow. I jabbed a finger at the Batarian:

"You shoot at me again and I make you fly."

All four eyes rolled but he kept his gun down; the Salarian wasn't amused, his face nearly expressionless. I think Thoros almost thought it was funny, but he was too wary to do more than a tight smile.

Wes was back: *_Why? Why do we 'owe' anyone an explanation? The others aren't too keen on the idea._*

*_Because Thoros was attacked today and he thought it was us._*

My Cellmate seemed to almost get it, but didn't want to jump to a conclusion and be wrong: *_Again – why?_*

I kept my face neutral as we walked and faced forward so Thoros wouldn't see the swirling mix of chaos I was feeling.

*_Because we're not the only Subjects on Omega._*


End file.
